We theoretically investigate the isolated attosecond pulse generation from pre-excited medium with a chirped and chirped-free two-color field. It is found that the large initial population of the excited state can lead to the high density of the free electrons in the medium and the large distortion of the driving laser field after propagation, though it benefits large enhancement of harmonic intensity in single atom response. These effects can weaken the phase-match of the macroscopic supercontinuum. On the contrary, the small initial population of 4% can generate well phase-match intense supercontinuum. We also investigate an isolated attosecond pulse generation by using a filter centered on axis to select the harmonics in the far field. Our results reveal that the radius of the spatial filter should be chosen to be small enough to reduce the duration of the isolated attosecond pulse due to the curvature effect of spatiotemporal profiles of the generated attosecond pulses in the far field.
We theoretically investigate the isolated attosecond pulse generation from pre-excited medium with a chirped and chirped-free two-color field. It is found that the large initial population of the excited state can lead to the high density of the free electrons in the medium and the large distortion of the driving laser field after propagation, though it benefits large enhancement of harmonic intensity in single atom response. These effects can weaken the phase-match of the macroscopic supercontinuum. On the contrary, the small initial population of 4% can generate well phase-match intense supercontinuum. We also investigate an isolated attosecond pulse generation by using a filter centered on axis to select the harmonics in the far field. Our results reveal that the radius of the spatial filter should be chosen to be small enough to reduce the duration of the isolated attosecond pulse due to the curvature effect of spatiotemporal profiles of the generated attosecond pulses in the far field.
We present a theoretical study of isolated attosecond pulse generation with a multicycle chirped and chirped-free two-color field. We show that the bandwidth of the extreme ultraviolet supercontinuum can be extended by combining a multicycle chirped pulse and a multicycle chirped-free pulse. Also, the broadband supercontinuum can still be generated when the macroscopic effects are included. Furthermore, the macroscopic effects can ameliorate the temporal characteristic of the broadband supercontinuum of the single atom, and eliminate the modulations of the broadband supercontinuum. Thus a very smooth broadband supercontinuum and a pure isolated 102-as pulse can be directly obtained. Moreover, the structure of the broadband supercontinuum can be steadily maintained for a relative long distance after a certain distance.
The macroscopic effects on the broadband supercontinuum generated in the interaction of an ω and ω/2 bichromatic laser pulse and an atom are investigated with a three-dimensional propagation model. It is shown that a broadband supercontinuum can still be generated when the macroscopic effects are included, and the macroscopic effects can ameliorate the temporal characteristic of the broadband supercontinuum of a single atom. When the broadband supercontinuum propagates through the low-density gas medium, the modulations of the broadband supercontinuum can be weakened or even eliminated by phase matching. Moreover, this unmodulated broadband supercontinuum can steadily last for a relative long distance of propagation and can be directly filtered to generate an isolated sub-100 attosecond pulse.
High-order harmonic spectra and attosecond pulse generation from Rydberg atom (He[Formula: see text]) driven by the spatially inhomogeneous field have been theoretically investigated. (i) Firstly, with an electron initially in a single excited Rydberg state (nth), the harmonic yield can be enhanced due to the decreased ionization potential, and a maximum enhancement can be obtained when the initial state is prepared as the third excited state (n = 3). However, the low cutoff energy from the excited state is unbeneficial to the generation of the higher photon pulse. Thus, with the further introduction of the laser chirp, not only the harmonic cutoff is extended, but also the harmonic modulation is reduced. As a result, five super-bandwidths from 63 eV to 267 eV can be found. (ii) Secondly, by preparing the initial state as a coherent superposition of excited state, the harmonic yield can be further enhanced, especially for the coherent superposition of the first and the third (n = 1 + 3) and the second and the fourth (n = 2 + 4) excited states, the harmonic yield is enhanced by 4–8 orders of magnitude compared with the case of the single ground initial state. Furthermore, by properly adding the laser pulse into the spatially inhomogeneous region (gap center [Formula: see text] a.u.) from left [Formula: see text] to right [Formula: see text], much higher cutoff energies can be obtained in the left region. As a consequence, two super-bandwidths of 248 eV and 496 eV can be obtained. Finally, by properly superposing the harmonics, a series of sub-25-as pulses with intensity enhancement of 5–8 orders of magnitude can be produced.
Recently, the advances in generation and characterization techniques of ultrashort laser pulses made it practical to prepare precisely defined laser pulses, these open up new possibilities for studying and controlling dynamical processes in femtosecond time scale. Hitherto, frequency-synthesized or chirped laser pulses have been widely applied to high-order harmonic generation (HHG) [3], population transfer [4], multiphoton transitions between Rydberg states [5], ect. Both the interference of two-color pulses and the nontrivial time dependence of chirped pulse laser field may lead to very interesting results. Moreover, recent studies have manifested that chirping can also have much impacts on the laser pulses as it propagates through different medium. For example, the propagation properties of chirped soliton pulses in optical nonlinear Kenmedia were investigated by Desaix et al. [6]. The result indicates that the properties of asymptotically emerging solitons depend not only on the magnitude, but also on the form of the initial chirp. In particular, the splitting of an initial pulse into separating soliton pulse pairs only occurs for certain classes of initial chirp functions. The influence of pulse shape and frequency chirp on stability of optical solitons was studied by Klaus and Shaw [7]. They found that destabilization occurs when eigenvalues of an associated Zakharov-Shabat system, which move along the positive imaginary axis with increasing chirp parameter, either are absorbed into the lower half plane or collide with a nother eigenvalue. Furthermore, the signal and group velocities for chirped pulses propagating through a GaAs cavity were measured by Centini et al. [8]. They showed that the chirp substantially modifies the group velocity of the pulse, but leaves the signal velocity unaltered.
An optical coherent control scheme has been proposed and theoretically investigated where an extreme ultraviolet single attosecond pulse (SAP) propagates through a dense helium gas dressed by a time-delayed femtosecond laser pulse. The laser pulse couples the 2s2p([superscript]1P) and 2s[superscript]2([superscript]1S) autoionizing states when the SAP excites the 2s2p state. After going through the gas, the spectral and temporal profiles of the SAP are strongly distorted. A narrowed but enhanced spike in the spectrum shows up for specific intensities and time delays of the laser, which exemplifies the control of a broadband photon wave packet by an ultrashort dressing field for the first time. We analyze the photon and electron dynamics and determine the dressing condition that maximizes this enhancement. The result demonstrates new possibilities of attosecond optical control.
An optical coherent control scheme has been proposed and theoretically investigated where an extreme ultraviolet single attosecond pulse (SAP) propagates through dense helium gas dressed by a time-delayed femtosecond laser pulse. The laser pulse couples the 2s2p( 1 P) and 2s 2 ( 1 S) autoionizing states when the SAP excites the 2s2p state. After going through the gas, the spectral and temporal profiles of the SAP are strongly distorted. A narrowed but enhanced spike in the spectrum shows up for specific intensities and time delays of the laser, which exemplifies the control of a broadband photon wave packet by an ultrashort dressing field for the first time. We analyse the photon and electron dynamics and determine the dressing condition that maximizes this enhancement. The result demonstrates new possibilities of attosecond optical control.