M. Raghuramaiah

Single-harmonic enhancement by controlling the chirp of the driving laser pulse during high-order harmonic generation from GaAs plasma

We report a study of the enhancement of the intensity of the 27th-harmonic radiation produced during the high-order harmonic generation from the GaAs plasma by controlling the chirp of the fundamental Ti:sapphire laser radiation. The influence of Ga and As ions on the enhancement of the 27th-harmonic radiation is also studied.

Simultaneous measurement of pulse-front tilt and pulse duration of a femtosecond laser beam

Simultaneous single-shot measurements of pulse-front tilt and pulse duration of ultrashort laser pulses are performed using a single-shot autocorrelator. It uses non-collinear second-harmonic generation by overlapping an ultrashort laser pulse with its spatially inverted replica in a KDP crystal. The pulse-front tilt is determined from the rotation angle of the axis of the elliptical shaped autocorrelation trace. Performance of the system is demonstrated from measurements of the pulse duration and known pulse-front tilt introduced in 250 fs (FWHM) transform-limited laser pulses from a CW mode-locked Nd:glass laser.

A second-order autocorrelator for single-shot measurement of femtosecond laser pulse durations

A second-order autocorrelator for single-shot measurement of ultrashort laser pulse durations has been set up. It is based on recording the spatial profile of non-collinear phase-matched second harmonic generation in a KDP crystal using a CCD camera-framegrabber combination. Performance of the system is described from measurement of 250 femtosecond transform-limited laser pulses from a passively mode-locked, diode pumped Nd:glass laser. It can also be used for measurement of picosecond laser pulses in the multi-shot scanning mode.

Generation of higher harmonics in laser plasma formed on the surface of a silver target

The results of investigation of the higher harmonics (from the 21st to the 61st order) of radiation of a femtosecond laser (793 nm, 48 fs) that are generated in silver plasma are presented. The changes in the shape and spectra of harmonics for different chirps of the laser radiation are studied. It is found that the wavelengths of harmonics generated in the region of the plateaulike distribution of the converted radiation intensity can be tuned. It is shown that the conditions of phase matching between harmonics and laser radiation are different for different modulations of the femtosecond pulse spectrum. The tuning range of the spectrum of the converted radiation in the region of lower harmonics, which lie in the beginning region of the plateau, is shown to amount to 0.8 nm.

Control of the intensity of a single harmonic generated in laser plasma by varying the chirp of intense femtosecond pulses

A significant increase, as well as a decrease, in the intensity of single higher harmonics of femtosecond radiation of a Ti:sapphire laser that are generated in a weakly excited laser plasma on the surface of GaAs, Cr, InSb, In, and stainless steel is demonstrated. The intensities of some higher harmonics in different regions of their plateaulike distribution varied from a 23-fold excess over the intensity of the neighboring harmonics to the complete absence in the extreme ultraviolet spectrum. The specific features of a 200-fold increase in the intensity of the 13th harmonic generated in indium plasma are analyzed. These variations in the intensity distribution of harmonics in the plateau region are obtained by varying the chirp of laser pulses.

Characteristics of a multi-keV monochromatic point x-ray source based on vacuum diode with laser-produced plasma as cathode

Temporal, spatial and spectral characteristics of a multi-keV monochromatic point x-ray source based on vacuum diode with laser-produced plasma as cathode are presented. Electrons from a laser-produced aluminium plasma were accelerated towards a conical point tip titanium anode to generate K-shell x-ray radiation. Approximately 1010 photons/pulse were generated in x-ray pulses of ∼18 to ∼28 ns duration from a source of ∼300 μm diameter, athυ = 4.51 keV (Kα emission of titanium), with a brightness of ∼1020 photons/cm2/s/sr. This was sufficient to record single-shot x-ray radiographs of physical objects on a DEF-5 x-ray film kept at a distance of up to ∼10 cm.

Generation of high-order harmonics of femtosecond radiation from the surface of various media

The results of study of high-order harmonic generation from the surfaces of various materials by using femtosecond radiation with a variable chirp are presented. The analysis and optimization of radiation conversion into harmonics up to the fifteenth order (λ = 52.9 nm) are carried out. It is shown that the maximum conversion efficiency is realized for the surfaces of silver and glass. The wavelength of harmonics can be tuned over the 2-nm range by changing the chirp of the radiation converted.