A. V. Pakhomov

All-optical control of unipolar pulse generation in a resonant medium with nonlinear field coupling

We study the optical response of a resonant medium possessing nonlinear coupling to an external field driven by a few-cycle pump pulse sequence. We demonstrate the possibility of directly producing unipolar half-cycle pulses from the medium possessing an arbitrary nonlinearity, by choosing the proper pulse-to-pulse distance of the pump pulses in the sequence. We examine various ways of shaping the medium response using different geometrical configurations of nonlinear oscillators and different wavefront shapes for the excitation pulse sequence. Our approach defines a general framework to produce unipolar pulses of controllable form.

Generation of unipolar pulses in a circular Raman-active medium excited by few-cycle optical pulses

We study theoretically a new possibility of unipolar pulse generation in a Raman-active medium excited by a series of few-cycle optical pulses. We consider the case when the Raman-active particles are uniformly distributed along a circle or helix, and demonstrate the possibility of obtaining rectangular unipolar pulses with an arbitrarily long duration above the minimum value equal to the natural period of the low-frequency vibrations in the Raman-active medium.

Few-cycle pulse-driven excitation response of resonant medium with nonlinear field coupling

We study theoretically the optical response of the resonant medium on the few-cycle pulse-driven excitation for different types of the coupling strength to the field. It is demonstrated that the medium can exhibit a specific excitation response depending on the field coupling nonlinearity. Remarkably, the analysis of this response revealed the possibility of the controllable generation and shaping of unipolar optical pulses, which can be important in real-time observation and time-domain control of ultrafast processes in matter.

Generation of unipolar half-cycle pulses via unusual reflection of a single-cycle pulse from an optically thin metallic or dielectric layer

We propose a strikingly simple method to form approximately unipolar half-cycle optical pulses via reflection of a single-cycle optical pulse from a thin flat metallic or dielectric layer. Unipolar pulses in reflection arise due to specifics of one-dimensional pulse propagation. Namely, we show that the field emitted by the layer is proportional to the velocity of the oscillating charges in the medium, instead of their acceleration. Besides, the oscillation velocity of the charges can be forced to keep a constant sign throughout the pulse duration. That is, reflection of ultrashort pulses from broad-area layers with nanometer-scale thickness can be very different from the common reflection in the case of longer pulses and thicker layers. This suggests a possibility of unusual transformations of few-cycle light pulses in completely linear optical systems.

Population density gratings induced by few-cycle optical pulses in a resonant medium

Creation, erasing and ultrafast control of population density gratings using few-cycle optical pulses coherently interacting with resonant medium is discussed. In contrast to the commonly used schemes, here the pulses do not need to overlap in the medium, interaction between the pulses is mediated by excitation of polarization waves. We investigate the details of the dynamics arising in such ultrashort pulse scheme and develop an analytical theory demonstrating the importance of the phase memory effects in the dynamics.

Population difference gratings produced by unipolar subcycle pulses in a resonant medium

We demonstrate the possibility of inducing, erasing and extra rapidly controlling population difference gratings resulting from coherent interaction of unipolar subcycle pulses with a resonant medium. Gratings can be produced without overlap of pulses in the medium, which is an important distinction of the proposed approach from the traditional one, in which gratings are produced using interference of two or more overlapping quasi-monochromatic light beams. The use of unipolar subcycle pulses ensures faster control over gratings in comparison with bipolar pulses studied by us previously.

Generation of Extremely Short Pulses upon Excitation of a Resonant Medium by a Superluminal Light Spot

The possibility of generation of quasi-unipolar extremely short pulses (with a duration of several periods of field oscillations) is theoretically analyzed for the excitation of a circular, nonlinear, and resonant medium with a light spot. The light spot rotates along a circle with a velocity that exceeds the speed of light in vacuum, while particles of the medium are distributed uniformly along the circle. It is shown that, by introducing a delay in the form of a phase plate into the system, one can control the shape, the duration, and the amplitude of generated pulses.

Collisions of Single-Cycle and Subcycle Attosecond Light Pulses in a Nonlinear Resonant Medium

By numerically solving the system of Maxwell–Bloch equations, we have examined theoretically collisions of extremely short single-cycle and unipolar subcycle pulses in a nonlinear resonant medium under conditions that the light interacts coherently with the medium. The dynamics of the electric field of structures of light-induced polarization and inversion difference has been considered in the situation in which pulses are overlapped in the medium. We show that the states of the medium (to the right and to the left of the overlap region of the pulses) may differ. In particular, we show that polarization waves with different characteristics can exist in the regions of the medium that are located on opposite sides of the overlap region of the pulses. These waves travel in different directions and have different spatial frequencies.

Ultrafast control of deeply subwavelength periodic gratings in resonant medium by few-cycle pulses

Generation of ultrashort pulses of few-cycle or even subcycle duration made it possible to observe previously inaccessible ultrafast processes in matter [1]. On the other hand, ultrashort pulses can coherently interact with a resonant medium since their duration can be much smaller than the medium relaxation times T1 and T2.

Subwavelength population density gratings in resonant medium created by few-cycle pulses

We consider theoretically recently proposed a new possibility of creation, erasing and ultrafast control of population density grating. Such grating can be created in resonant medium when ultrashort pulses with duration smaller than relaxation times in the resonant medium (coherent light matter interactions) propagate without overlapping in this medium. Possible applications in the ultrafast optics such as optical switcher and laser beam deflector are discussed.