V.A. Andreeva

Ultrabroad Terahertz Spectrum Generation from an Air-Based Filament Plasma.

We have solved the long-standing problem of the mechanism of terahertz (THz) generation by a two-color filament in air and found that both neutrals and plasma contribute to the radiation. We reveal that the contribution from neutrals by four-wave mixing is much weaker and higher in frequency than the distinctive plasma lower-frequency contribution. The former is in the forward direction while the latter is in a cone and reveals an abrupt down-shift to the plasma frequency. Ring-shaped spatial distributions of the THz radiation are shown to be of universal nature and they occur in both collimated and focusing propagation geometries. Experimental measurements of the frequency-angular spectrum generated by 130-fs laser pulses agree with numerical simulations based on a unidirectional pulse propagation model.

Transformation of terahertz spectra emitted from dual-frequency femtosecond pulse interaction in gases

Experimental and theoretical study of the mechanisms affecting the spectral form of the pulsed THz emission generated due to the interaction between a bichromatic laser field and a gaseous medium is presented. The influence of a photoionization process and Raman rotational molecular transitions on the THz spectrum is discussed. Typical spectral modifications of THz emission are tracked down and linked to the duration of the two-color laser pump pulse.

Angular distribution of the terahertz radiation intensity from the plasma channel of a femtosecond filament

A phenomenological model of the terahertz radiation of the plasma channel of a femtosecond filament has been elaborated that satisfactorily describes the experimental results of the detection of low-frequency radiation in air. The angular distributions of the terahertz radiation intensity in the absence and presence of an external electrostatic field have been obtained. The dependence of the divergence angle of the terahertz radiation on the filament parameters has been determined.

Propagation equation for tight-focusing by a parabolic mirror.

Part of the chain in petawatt laser systems may involve extreme focusing conditions for which nonparaxial and vectorial effects have high impact on the propagation of radiation. We investigate the possibility of using propagation equations to simulate numerically the focal spot under these conditions. We derive a unidirectional propagation equation for the Hertz vector, describing linear and nonlinear propagation under situations where nonparaxial diffraction and vectorial effects become significant. By comparing our simulations to the results of vector diffraction integrals in the case of linear tight-focusing by a parabolic mirror, we establish a practical criterion for the critical f -number below which initializing a propagation equation with a parabolic input phase becomes inaccurate. We propose a method to find suitable input conditions for propagation equations beyond this limit. Extreme focusing conditions are shown to be modeled accurately by means of numerical simulations of the unidirectional Hertz-vector propagation equation initialized with suitable input conditions.

Fusion of regularized femtosecond filaments in air: far field on-axis emission

The fusion of several coherent 800 nm femtosecond filaments is induced experimentally and numerically by transmitting a beam through a mask with circular apertures followed by the focusing lens. The far-field image of the four-filament fusion region reveals bright on-axis maximum and differs drastically from the diffraction pattern of a low energy beam propagating through the mask in the linear regime. In 3D+time numerical simulations with the carrier wave resolved we show a factor-of-5 saturable growth in the peak plasma density with successive increase in the number of mask openings. An overall spectral blueshift of the fundamental and the third harmonics follows the plasma density increase. The simulated far-field on-axis emission agrees with the experiment and serves as the indication of nonlinear interaction in the fusion region.

Directionality of terahertz radiation emitted from an array of femtosecond filaments in gases

An array of filaments in air is numerically shown to be an efficient tool to direct the energy of terahertz (THz) radiation into a narrow and controllable cone. By increasing the number of filaments in an N × N array, the THz energy growth per unit angle of the cone exceeds the classical gain in N2. The backwardly directed radiation from the filament array appears when the transverse size of the array reaches the filament length. The optimum spacing between the filaments in the array is the THz wavelength, which ensures constructive interference and independent development of filaments.

Single-cycle pulse generation in the course of four-wave mixing in the filament

The possibility of single-cycle infrared pulses generation by for-wave mixing of visible seed radiation with high power femtosecond filament field with central wavelength of 800 nm is shown. It is determined that phase synchronism does not play a significant role in this ultrafast nonlinear optical process.

Nonlinearly enhanced linear absorption under filamentation in mid-infrared (Conference Presentation)

The mid-infrared OPCPA-based laser facilities have recently reached the critical power for self-focusing in air [1]. This ensures the demonstration of the major difference between the mid- and near-infrared filamentation in air: the odd optical harmonics, harshly suppressed by the material dispersion and phase-mismatch in the near-infrared (800 nm), gain reliable energies in the mid-infrared (3.9 µm) filament [1,2]. Another issue that makes mid-infrared filamentation different from the near-infrared one is a lot of molecular vibrational lines belonging to atmospheric constituents and located in the mid-infrared range [3]. As the result the mid-infrared region of interest becomes subdivided into the bands of normal and anomalous dispersion, the former of which leads to the pulse splitting in temporal domain, while the latter produces the confined light bullet. We simulate the 3.9-µm filamentation using Forward Maxwell equation. We include the tunnel ionization and transient photocurrent as the collapse arresting mechanism, which balances dynamically the instantaneous third-order medium response (similarly to 800-nm filamentation). The key feature that allows us to quantify the losses due to absorption bands is the accurate account of the complex linear absorption index. The absorption index obtained from Mathar model [3] is interpolated to the fine frequency grid (step of about 0.1 THz), and the refractive index is matched according to Kramers-Krönig relations [4]. If the initial Gaussian pulse has a center wavelength of 3.9 µm and a duration of 80 fs FWHM, the energy loss in the carbon dioxide (CO_2) absorption band at 4.3 µm is about 1% in the linear propagation regime. But when we take the 80-mJ pulse (about 3 critical powers for self-focusing), the Kerr-induced spectral broadening develops significantly before the clamping level of intensity is reached. In the collimated beam geometry about 2% of the initial pulse energy is absorbed on the CO_2 band before the filament is formed. In the developed filament all the partial losses due to plasma, harmonic generation and absorption on vibrational lines grow up rapidly with the propagation distance, and the absorption on vibrational lines overwhelms all the rest ones. Indeed the new mechanism is revealed – the linear absorption is enhanced by the nonlinear spectral broadening. Thus, the nonlinearly enhanced linear absorption (NELA) is formed. The rotational transitions are estimated to consume as much energy as the free electron generation mechanism [5], which is less than NELA for 3.9-µm filament. In conclusion, in the 3.9-µm filament the excitations of molecular absorption lines are estimated to provide the major optical losses in the atmosphere as compared with plasma and high-frequency conversion. [1] A. V. Mitrofanov et al., Sci. Rep. 5, 8368 (2015). [2] P. Panagiotopoulos et al., Nat. Photonics 9, 543 (2015). [3] R. J. Mathar, Appl. Opt. 43, 928 (2004). [4] N. A. Panov et al., Phys. Rev. A 94, 041801 (2016). [5] S. Zahedpour et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 143601 (2014).

Terahertz and Mid-Infrared Radiation from Femtosecond Filaments in Gases

The phenomenon of ultrashort laser-pulse filamentation in transparent gases and liquids is represented by the localization of laser energy in a thin string of light called filament. This string is created under the joint action of radiation self-focusing and defocusing in the plasma, which is produced by the same propagating laser pulse that limits the self-focusing collapse. Ultrashort filamenting pulse emits continuum spanning from ultraviolet to terahertz range. The origin of low-frequency terahertz (THz) radiation (0-15 THz) originates from the ionization-induced photocurrent, while the higher-frequency THz radiation comes from the Kerr nonlinearity of neutral molecules.

Polarization Of THz radiation generated during two-color filamentation of arbitrarily polarized laser pulses

We examined experimentally and theoretically polarization of THz radiation generated during dual-color (800nm+400nm) co-propagation of high-peak-power femtosecond laser pulses in gases. We reveal that THz radiation polarization is predominantly defined by the generation of the nonlinear photocurrent in the self - induced laser plasma and remains relatively stable with respect to the change of the initial polarization angle between the 800 nm and 400 nm light fields.