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arXiv : Superradiance of molecular nitrogen ions in strong laser fields

Qian Wang, Bitao Hu, Yun Zhang, M. Athanasakis-Kaklamanakis, Pengji Ding, Shane G. Wilkins, Z. Liu

Published May 3, 2021• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We perform a combined theoretical and experimental investigation of the superradiance in the quantum coherent system generated by strong laser fields. The semiclassical theory of superradiance that includes the superradiant temporal profile, character duration, time delay, intensity is derived. The experimental data and theoretical predictions of 391-nm forward emission as a function of nitrogen gas pressure are compared and show good agreement. Our results not only demonstrate that the time-delayed optical amplification inside the molecular nitrogen ions is superradiance, but also reveal the quantum optical properties of strong-field physics.

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We perform a combined theoretical and experimental investigation of the superradiance in the quantum coherent system generated by strong laser fields. The semiclassical theory of superradiance that includes the superradiant temporal profile, character duration, time delay, intensity is derived. The experimental data and theoretical predictions of 391-nm forward emission as a function of nitrogen gas pressure are compared and show good agreement. Our results not only demonstrate that the time-delayed optical amplification inside the molecular nitrogen ions is superradiance, but also reveal the quantum optical properties of strong-field physics.
We perform a combined theoretical and experimental investigation of the superradiance in the quantum coherent system generated by strong laser fields. The semiclassical theory of superradiance that includes the superradiant temporal profile, character duration, time delay, intensity is derived. The experimental data and theoretical predictions of 391-nm forward emission as a function of nitrogen gas pressure are compared and show good agreement. Our results not only demonstrate that the time-delayed optical amplification inside the molecular nitrogen ions is superradiance, but also reveal the quantum optical properties of strong-field physics.
Singly ionized nitrogen molecules in ambient air pumped by 800 nm femtosecond laser give rise to superradiant emission. Here, we study this superradiance by injecting a pair of resonant seeding pulses at different intensity ratios inside the nitrogen gas plasma. Strong modulation of the 391.4 nm superradiant emission with a period of 1.3 fs is observed when the delay between the two seeding pulses is finely tuned. The modulation contrast is increased and then decreased with the delay time when the second seed pulse is stronger than the first one, and the maximum modulation contrast occurs at longer delay time when the second seeding pulse is stronger. This reveals the increase of the macroscopic polarization with time after the seeding pulse. Moreover, these observations provide a new level of control on the "air lasing" based on nitrogen ions, which can find potential applications in optical remote sensing.
Theoretical and experimental study of nonresonance generation of laser radiation by atoms, molecules and ions of matter - superradiation - is an important area of research in the field of femtosecond optics. Narrowly directed (forward and reverse), with an intensity proportional to the square of the number of inverted atoms, molecules and ions, radiation can be used to probe the atmosphere using femtosecond lidars. This paper presents the results of comparative experimental studies of the appearance of superradiance at transitions of molecular nitrogen ion in the atmosphere and at transitions of atomic strontium ion in a mixture with inert gases (He, Ne) in a heated cuvette. For the first time, superradiance was observed in the transition from the resonant electronic state 2Р1/2 / to the ground state 2S1/2 (407.8 nm), when Sr pairs were pumped by radiation at a wavelength of 268.1 nm.
We report a combined theoretical and experimental investigation on the unambiguous role of electronic coherence underlying the generation of laserlike coherent emission from N2+{{\mathrm{N}}_{2}}^{+}N2​+ ions launched in a strong laser field. The coherence manifests itself by giving rise to a dramatic enhancement of N2+{{\mathrm{N}}_{2}}^{+}N2​+ laserlike radiation with two temporally separated pump laser pulses centered at 800- and 1580-nm wavelengths, respectively. We further show that coherent control of N2+{{\mathrm{N}}_{2}}^{+}N2​+ lasing in a subfemtosecond timescale can be achieved by replacing the single 800-nm laser pulse with a pair of 800-nm laser pulses of adjustable time delay. The experimental results are well reproduced in theory using a three-level quantum model of N2+{{\mathrm{N}}_{2}}^{+}N2​+ ions under the density matrix representation.
We report on an investigation of simultaneous generation of several narrow-bandwidth laser-like coherent emissions from nitrogen molecular ions ( ) produced in intense mid-infrared laser fields. With systematic examinations on the dependences of coherent emissions on gas pressure as well as several laser parameters including laser intensity, polarization and wavelength of the pump laser pulses, we reveal that the multiple coherent emission lines generated in originate from a series of nonlinear processes beginning with four-wave mixing, followed with stimulated Raman scattering. Our analyses further show that the observed nonlinear processes are greatly enhanced at the resonant wavelengths, giving rise to high conversion efficiencies from the infrared pump laser pulses to the coherent emission lines near the transition wavelengths between the different vibrational energy levels of ground X and that of the excited B states.
The existence of electronic coherence can fundamentally change the scenario of nonlinear interaction of light with quantum systems such as atoms and molecules, which, however, has escaped from observation in the investigations of strong field nonlinear optics in the past several decades. Here, we report on the generation of electronic quantum coherence by strong field ionization of nitrogen molecules in an intense 800 nm laser field. The coherence is experimentally revealed by observing a resonant four-wave mixing process in which the two pump pulses centered at 800 nm and 1580 nm wavelengths are temporally separated from each other. The experimental observation is further reproduced by calculating the nonlinear polarization response of N_2^+ ions using a three-level quantum model. Our result suggests that strong field ionization provides a unique approach to generating a fully coherent molecular wavepacket encapsulating the rotational, vibrational, and electronic states.