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Author: Pedro González de Alaiza Martínez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The electromagnetic spectrum has a narrow frequency band, lying between microwaves and infrared, known as terahertz (THz) waves and extending from 0.1 to 30 THz. These waves, inaccessible until a recent past because they are situated at the boundary between electronics and optics, are raising interest because of their promising applications in several areas such as medical imaging and remote identification of explosives. However, producing intense THz radiation with amplitude belonging to the GV/m range should allow us to probe efficiently remote materials, which still remains an open issue. The goal of this thesis is precisely to study the generation of such intense THz radiation by coupling two ultrashort laser pulses -the fundamental and its second harmonic- able to ionize a gas target (for example, air or argon). The plasma created by photoionization then acts as a nonlinear frequency converter, transforming part of the laser energy into the THz band via a wide range of physical mechanisms including the Kerr effect, the photoionization and ponderomotive forces induced inside the plasma. By means of an analytical and numerical modeling of these key mechanisms, we have comprehensively examined the generation of THz pulses at laser intensities ranging from characteristic intensities met in laser filamentation (1012-1014 W cm−2) to sub-relativistic intensities (1015-1018 W cm−2), this latter intensity range having been little investigated so far in this domain. It is already known that at low intensities laser-induced photionization dominates in terahertzgeneration, which strongly depends on the configuration of the laser colours (or harmonics). We demonstrate here that, beyond the classical two-colour laser setup, coupling several laser frequencies following the harmonics of a sawtooth waveform is optimal to enhance THz production. Simulations predict a laser-to-THz energy conversion efficiency of 2% with four colours, a record value unequalled so far. Moreover, with an experiment realized in air, we identify the Kerr signature in the emitted THz spectrum, which, even weaker, looks complentary to the plasma signature. When the intensity of the laser pulse is increased beyond 1015 W cm−2, we prove that the growth of the emitted terahertz radiation is nonmonotonic, due to the fact that that there exists an optimal intensity value that maximizes the THz energy produced by each electronic shell of the irradiated atom. Finally, we have studied in 2D geometry the combined effect of photoionization and ponderomotive forces at intensities close to 1018 W cm−2, allowing us to obtain THz fields exceeding the GV/m threshold in argon. These latter forces increase with the laser intensity and thus open interesting perspectives for the generation of very intense terahertz fields in the relativistic regime of laser-matter interaction.
Author: Pedro González de Alaiza Martínez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The electromagnetic spectrum has a narrow frequency band, lying between microwaves and infrared, known as terahertz (THz) waves and extending from 0.1 to 30 THz. These waves, inaccessible until a recent past because they are situated at the boundary between electronics and optics, are raising interest because of their promising applications in several areas such as medical imaging and remote identification of explosives. However, producing intense THz radiation with amplitude belonging to the GV/m range should allow us to probe efficiently remote materials, which still remains an open issue. The goal of this thesis is precisely to study the generation of such intense THz radiation by coupling two ultrashort laser pulses -the fundamental and its second harmonic- able to ionize a gas target (for example, air or argon). The plasma created by photoionization then acts as a nonlinear frequency converter, transforming part of the laser energy into the THz band via a wide range of physical mechanisms including the Kerr effect, the photoionization and ponderomotive forces induced inside the plasma. By means of an analytical and numerical modeling of these key mechanisms, we have comprehensively examined the generation of THz pulses at laser intensities ranging from characteristic intensities met in laser filamentation (1012-1014 W cm−2) to sub-relativistic intensities (1015-1018 W cm−2), this latter intensity range having been little investigated so far in this domain. It is already known that at low intensities laser-induced photionization dominates in terahertzgeneration, which strongly depends on the configuration of the laser colours (or harmonics). We demonstrate here that, beyond the classical two-colour laser setup, coupling several laser frequencies following the harmonics of a sawtooth waveform is optimal to enhance THz production. Simulations predict a laser-to-THz energy conversion efficiency of 2% with four colours, a record value unequalled so far. Moreover, with an experiment realized in air, we identify the Kerr signature in the emitted THz spectrum, which, even weaker, looks complentary to the plasma signature. When the intensity of the laser pulse is increased beyond 1015 W cm−2, we prove that the growth of the emitted terahertz radiation is nonmonotonic, due to the fact that that there exists an optimal intensity value that maximizes the THz energy produced by each electronic shell of the irradiated atom. Finally, we have studied in 2D geometry the combined effect of photoionization and ponderomotive forces at intensities close to 1018 W cm−2, allowing us to obtain THz fields exceeding the GV/m threshold in argon. These latter forces increase with the laser intensity and thus open interesting perspectives for the generation of very intense terahertz fields in the relativistic regime of laser-matter interaction.
Author: Jean-Claude Diels
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080466400
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 675
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Book Description
Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena, Second Edition serves as an introduction to the phenomena of ultra short laser pulses and describes how this technology can be used to examine problems in areas such as electromagnetism, optics, and quantum mechanics. Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena combines theoretical backgrounds and experimental techniques and will serve as a manual on designing and constructing femtosecond ("faster than electronics") systems or experiments from scratch. Beyond the simple optical system, the various sources of ultrashort pulses are presented, again with emphasis on the basic concepts and how they apply to the design of particular sources (dye lasers, solid state lasers, semiconductor lasers, fiber lasers, and sources based on frequency conversion). - Provides an easy to follow guide through "faster than electronics" probing and detection methods - THE manual on designing and constructing femtosecond systems and experiments - Discusses essential technology for applications in micro-machining, femtochemistry, and medical imaging
Author: Zhao Cheng
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Intense, ultrashort laser pulses propagating in the atmosphere have been observed to emit sub-THz elecromagnetic pulses (EMP). The purpose of this paper is to analyze EMP generation from the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with air and with dielectric surfaces and to determine the efficiency of conversion of laser energy to EMP energy. In our self-consistent model the laser pulse partially ionizes the medium, forms a plasma filament, and through the ponderomotive forces associated with the laser pulse, drives plasma currents which are the source of the EMP. The propagating laser pulse evolves under the influence of diffraction, Kerr focusing, plasma defocusing, and energy depletion due to electron collisions and ionization. Collective effects and recombination processes are also included in the model. The duration of the EMP in air, at a fixed point, is found to be a few hundred femtoseconds, i.e., on the order of the laser pulse duration plus the electron collision time. For steady state laser pulse propagation the flux of EMP energy is non-radiative and axially directed. Radiation EMP energy is present only for non-steady state or transient laser pulse propagation. The analysis also considers the generation of EMP on the surface of a dielectric on which an ultrashort laser pulse is incident For typical laser parameters, the power and energy conversion efficiency from laser radiation to EMP radiation in both air and from dielectric surfaces is found to be extremely small,
Author: Kaoru Yamanouchi
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319648403
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234
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Book Description
This thirteenth volume in the PUILS series covers a broad range of topics from this interdisciplinary research field, focusing on atoms, molecules, and clusters interacting in intense laser field and high-order harmonics generation and their applications. The series delivers up-to-date reviews of progress in ultrafast intense laser science, the interdisciplinary research field spanning atomic and molecular physics, molecular science, and optical science, which has been stimulated by the developments in ultrafast laser technologies. Each volume compiles peer-reviewed articles authored by researchers at the forefront of each their own subfields of UILS. Typically, each chapter opens with an overview of the topics to be discussed, so that researchers unfamiliar to the subfield, as well as graduate students, can grasp the importance and attractions of the research topic at hand; these are followed by reports of cutting-edge discoveries.
Author: See Leang Chin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441906886
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 138
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Book Description
This book attempts to give a discussion of the physics and current and potential applications of the self-focusing of an intense femtosecond laser pulse in a tra- parent medium. Although self-focusing is an old subject of nonlinear optics, the consequence of self-focusing of intense femtosecond laser pulses is totally new and unexpected. Thus, new phenomena are observed, such as long range lam- tation, intensity clamping, white light laser pulse, self-spatial ltering, self-group phase locking, self-pulse compression, clean nonlinear uorescence, and so on. Long range propagation at high intensity, which is seemingly against the law of diffraction, is probably one of the most exciting consequences of this new sub- eld of nonlinear optics. Because the intensity inside the lament core is high, new ways of doing nonlinear optics inside the lament become possible. We call this lamentation nonlinear optics. We shall describe the generation of pulses at other wavelengths in the visible and ultraviolet (UV) starting from the near infrared pump pulse at 800 nm through four-wave-mixing and third harmonic generation, all in gases. Remotely sensing uorescence from the fragments of chemical and biological agents in all forms, gaseous, aerosol or solid, inside the laments in air is demonstrated in the labo- tory. The results will be shown in the last part of the book. Through analyzing the uorescence of gas molecules inside the lament, an unexpected physical process pertaining to the interaction of synchrotron radiation with molecules is observed.
Author: Ayesheshim Kebie Ayesheshim
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Semiconductors
Languages : en
Pages : 233
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This thesis describes the generation, characterization, and nonlinear application of intense terahertz (THz) pulses. Nonlinear THz spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful tool to study the ultrafast time evolution of high-field charge carrier dynamics in semiconductors and nano-materials. The study of such phenomena in semiconductors and semiconductor structures requires intense THz pulses with high electric-field strengths. We have developed an improved experimental setup for generating high-power, nearsingle cycle THz pulses by tilted-pulse-front optical rectification in LiNbO3 with optimized optical-to-THz conversion efficiency, and proper characterization of the THz pulses in the Ultrafast Nanotools lab at the University of Alberta. We have investigated the effects of optical pump pulse pre-chirping and polarization on THz pulse generation using separate compressors for the optical pulses used for THz generation and detection. By down-chirping the 800 nm optical pump pulses to 385 fs, single-cycle THz pulses with energies up to 3.6 microJ were obtained, corresponding to an energy conversion efficiency of 3x10^{-3}. This high-field THz source is capable of generating electric fields greater than which can induce nonlinear carrier dynamics in semiconductors. We demonstrate novel high-field THz experiments that explore nonlinear processes in doped and photo-excited bulk semiconductors. As a benchmark and consistency check, a nonlinear THz absorption bleaching Z-scan experiment was conducted on an n-doped InGaAs epilayer on a lattice matched InP substrate. This experiment confirmed that the THz pulses generated by our source are adequate for ultrafast nonlinear measurements in the THz frequency range. Even more interesting, we have achieved unprecedented THz field absorption bleaching simply by flipping the face of the sample illuminated by the THz pulse pump. That is, we illuminate the insulating (substrate) side of the sample with the THz pulse in the Z-scan experiment rather than illuminating the usual (conducting) face of the sample. In this study considerable insight has been gained into developing an optical diode. We have also developed a technique to measure transient voltage pulses induced in doped and photoexcited semiconductors due to a shift current generated from the nonlinear THz dynamics of free electrons in the conduction band. This is a fascinating feature with a practical application as an ultrafast and ultra-sensitive THz phtotodetector. A Drude-based dynamic intervalley scattering simulation reveals that the nonlinear THz-induced transient voltage pulses are a result of intervalley scattering driven by high-field THz pulses. It is the first time that THz induced picosecond voltage transients are measured in semiconductors. We find that an intense THz pulse incident on an InGaAs sample excites a transient dipole due to intervalley scattering. Also, THz pulse induced transient voltage signals have been investigated in ZnTe, and doped-Si semiconductors due to a direct flow of free carriers upon THz photon absorption. We have observed nonlinear conductivity responses in Si, ZnTe, photo-excited SI-GaAs, and doped InGaAs, showing the strong THz pulse can heat the electron population and create a momentum distribution leading to saturable absorption in the THz frequency range.
Author: Christoph Peter Hauri
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 122
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Author: Eberhard J. Jaeschke
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783319143934
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Hardly any other discovery of the nineteenth century did have such an impact on science and technology as Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s seminal find of the X-rays. X-ray tubes soon made their way as excellent instruments for numerous applications in medicine, biology, materials science and testing, chemistry and public security. Developing new radiation sources with higher brilliance and much extended spectral range resulted in stunning developments like the electron synchrotron and electron storage ring and the freeelectron laser. This handbook highlights these developments in fifty chapters. The reader is given not only an inside view of exciting science areas but also of design concepts for the most advanced light sources. The theory of synchrotron radiation and of the freeelectron laser, design examples and the technology basis are presented. The handbook presents advanced concepts like seeding and harmonic generation, the booming field of Terahertz radiation sources and upcoming brilliant light sources driven by laser-plasma accelerators. The applications of the most advanced light sources and the advent of nanobeams and fully coherent x-rays allow experiments from which scientists in the past could not even dream. Examples are the diffraction with nanometer resolution, imaging with a full 3D reconstruction of the object from a diffraction pattern, measuring the disorder in liquids with high spatial and temporal resolution. The 20th century was dedicated to the development and improvement of synchrotron light sources with an ever ongoing increase of brilliance. With ultrahigh brilliance sources, the 21st century will be the century of x-ray lasers and their applications. Thus, we are already close to the dream of condensed matter and biophysics: imaging single (macro)molecules and measuring their dynamics on the femtosecond timescale to produce movies with atomic resolution.
Author: Xi-Cheng Zhang
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441909788
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 250
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Book Description
Terahertz (THz) radiation, which is electromagnetic radiation in a frequency int- val from 0.3 to 10 THz (1 mm–30 ?m wavelength), is the next frontier in science and technology. This band occupies a large portion of the electromagnetic sp- trum between the infrared and microwave bands. Basic research, new initiatives, and developments in advanced sensing and imaging technology with regard to the THz band remain unexplored compared to the relatively well-developed science and technology in the microwave and optical frequencies. Historically, THz technologies were used mainly within the astronomy c- munity for studying the background of cosmic far-infrared radiation, and by the laser-fusion community for the diagnostics of plasmas. Since the ?rst demonstration of THz wave time-domain spectroscopy in the late 1980s, there has been a series of signi?cant advances (particularly in recent years) as more intense THz sources and higher sensitivity detectors provide new opportunities for understanding the basic science in the THz frequency range.
