Stability and interaction of few-cycle pulses in a Kerr medium

The interaction of excited atoms and few-cycle laser pulses

This work describes the first observations of the ionisation of neon in a metastable atomic state utilising a strong-field, few-cycle light pulse. We compare the observations to theoretical predictions based on the Ammosov-Delone-Krainov (ADK) theory and a solution to the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE). The TDSE provides better agreement with the experimental data than the ADK theor...

Controlling H- detachment with few-cycle pulses

Temporal contrast enhancement of femtosecond pulses by a self-diffraction process in a bulk Kerr medium.

We demonstrated for the first time the application of a self-diffraction (SD) process in a bulk Kerr medium to improve the temporal, spectral, and spatial qualities of femtosecond laser pulses. A proof-of-principle experiment succeeded in improving the temporal contrast of a femtosecond pulse by four orders of magnitude even in the picosecond region using a 0.5-mm-thick fused silica glass plate...

Transmission of few-cycle pulses by Fabry-Perot interferometer

We theoretically model the transmission of ultra-short optical pulses by FabryPerot interferometer, taking into account multiple waves re-reflection inside interferometer by examination of two superimposed waves. Based on the analytical and numerical analysis, we calculate the transformations of the optical electric field profiles and optical spectra of the pulses at the output of the interfero...

Robust carrier-envelope phase retrieval of few-cycle laser pulses

The two-dimensional momentum distributions of high-energy photoelectrons generated in the above-threshold ionization of atoms by intense laser pulses are analysed as resulting from the elastic backscattering of laser-induced returning electrons. Using this quantitative rescattering theory, we show that the returning electron wave packets are entirely determined by the properties of the laser pu...