No Arabic abstract
We report on efficient nonlinear generation of ultrafast, higher order perfect vortices at the green wavelength. Based on Fourier transformation of the higher order Bessel-Gauss beam generated through the combination of spiral phase plate and axicon we have transformed the Gaussian beam of the ultrafast Yb-fiber laser at 1060 nm into perfect vortices of power 4.4 W and order up to 6. Using single-pass second harmonic generation (SHG) of such vortices in 5-mm long chirped MgO-doped, periodically poled congruent LiNbO$_3$ crystal we have generated perfect vortices at green wavelength with output power of 1.2 W and vortex order up to 12 at single-pass conversion efficiency of 27% independent of its order. This is the highest single-pass SHG efficiency of any optical beams other than Gaussian beams. Unlike the disintegration of higher order vortices in birefringent crystals, here, the use of quasi-phase matching process enables generation of high quality vortices even at higher orders. The green perfect vortices of all orders have temporal and spectral width of 507 fs and 1.9 nm, respectively corresponding to a time-bandwidth product of 1.02.
We have investigated the generation of highly pure higher-order Laguerre-Gauss (LG) beams at high laser power of order 100W, the same regime that will be used by 2nd generation gravitational wave interferometers such as Advanced LIGO. We report on the generation of a helical type LG33 mode with a purity of order 97% at a power of 83W, the highest power ever reported in literature for a higher-order LG mode.
State-of-the-art experiments employ strong ultrafast optical fields to study the nonlinear response of electrons in solids on an attosecond time-scale. Notably, a recent experiment retrieved a 3rd order nonlinear susceptibility by comparing the nonlinear response induced by a strong laser field to a linear response induced by the otherwise identical weak field. In parallel, experiments have demonstrated high harmonic generation (HHG) in solids, a highly nonlinear process that until recently had only been observed in gases. The highly nonlinear nature of HHG has the potential to extract even higher order nonlinear susceptibility terms, and thereby characterize the entire response of the electronic system to strong field excitation. However, up till now, such characterization has been elusive due to a lack of direct correspondence between high harmonics and nonlinear susceptibilities. Here, we demonstrate a regime where such correspondence can be clearly made, extracting nonlinear susceptibilities (7th, 9th, and 11th) from sapphire of the same order as the measured high harmonics. The extracted high order susceptibilities show angular-resolved periodicities arising from variation in the band structure with crystal orientation. Nonlinear susceptibilities are key to ultrafast lightwave driven optoelectronics, allowing petahertz scaling manipulation of the signal. Our results open a door to multi-channel signal processing, controlled by laser polarization.
We report a novel experimental scheme for single-pass second harmonic generation (SHG) of vector vortex beam in the blue. Using an ultrafast Ti:Sapphire laser of pulse width ~17 fs and a set of spiral phase plates in polarization based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) we have generated vector vortex beams of order as high as lp = 12 at an average power of 860 mW. Given the space-variant polarization of the vector vortex beam, and the dependence of nonlinear frequency conversion processes on the polarization of the interacting beams, using two contiguous bismuth borate crystals with optic axis orthogonal to each other, we have frequency-doubled the near-IR vector vortex beam into visible vector vortex beams with order as high as lsh=24. The maximum output power of the vector vortex beam of order, lsh =2 is measured be as high as 20.5 mW at a single-pass SHG efficiency of 2.4 %. Controlling the temporal delay in the MZI, we have preserved the vector vortex nature of the beams at both pump and frequency-doubled beams at ultrafast timescales. The measurement on mode purity confirms the generation of high quality vector vortex beams at pump and SHG wavelengths. The generic experimental scheme can be used to generate vector vortex beams across the electromagnetic spectrum.
Achieving efficient terahertz (THz) generation using compact turn-key sources operating at room temperature and modest power levels represents one of the critical challeges that must be overcome to realize truly practical applications based on THz. Up to now, the most efficient approaches to THz generation at room temperature -- relying mainly on optical rectification schemes -- require intricate phase-matching set-ups and powerful lasers. Here we show how the unique light-confining properties of triply-resonant photonic resonators can be tailored to enable dramatic enhancements of the conversion efficiency of THz generation via nonlinear frequency down-conversion processes. We predict that this approach can be used to reduce up to three orders of magnitude the pump powers required to reach quantum-limited conversion efficiency of THz generation in nonlinear optical material systems. Furthermore, we propose a realistic design readily accesible experimentally, both for fabrication and demonstration of optimal THz conversion efficiency at sub-W power levels.
We report 32% efficient frequency doubling of single frequency 1029 nm light to green light at 514.5 nm using a single pass configuration. A congruent composition, periodically poled magnesium doped lithium niobate (PPMgLN) crystal of 50 mm length was used to generate a second harmonic power of 2.3 W. To our knowledge, this is the highest reported frequency doubling efficiency of any wavelength light in a PPMgLN crystal and also the highest reported SHG output power in the green for PPMgLN.