Xiao-Long Liu

Tightly focused femtosecond laser pulse in air: from filamentation to breakdown

The propagation of tightly focused femtosecond laser pulse with numerical aperture of 0.12 in air is investigated experimentally. The formation and evolution of the filament bunch are recorded by time-resolved shadowgraph with laser energy from 2.4 mJ to 47 mJ. The distribution of electron density in breakdown area is retrieved using Nomarski interferometer. It is found that intensity clamping during filamentation effect still play a role even under strong external focusing. The electron density in some interaction zones is higher than 3 × 10(19) cm(-3), which indicates that each air molecule there is ionized.

Collisionless shock generation in high-speed counterstreaming plasma flows by a high-power laser

The experimental demonstration of the formation of a strong electrostatic (ES) collisionless shock has been carried out with high-speed counterstreaming plasmas, produced by a high-power laser irradiation, without external magnetic field. The nearly four times density jump observed in the experiment shows a high Mach-number shock. This large density jump is attributed to the compression of the downstream plasma by momentum transfer by ion reflection of the upstream plasma. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation shows the production of a collisionless high Mach-number ES shock with counterstreaming interaction of two plasma slabs with different temperatures and densities, as pointed out by Sorasio et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 045005 (2006)]. It is speculated that the shock discontinuity is balanced with the momentum of incoming and reflected ions and the predominant pressure of the electrons in the downstream with PIC simulation.

Broadband supercontinuum generation in air using tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses

Supercontinuum generation in air using tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses was investigated experimentally. Broadband white-light emission covering the whole visible spectral region was generated. Spectral broadening extended only to the blue side of the fundamental frequency due to the phase modulation induced by the strong ionization of air. Numerical simulation was also performed to confirm the spectral broadening mechanism. A constant UV cutoff wavelength close to 400 nm was observed in the supercontinuum spectrum. This phenomenon indicated that intensity clamping still plays a role in tight focusing geometry.

Long lifetime air plasma channel generated by femtosecond laser pulse sequence

Lifetime of laser plasma channel is significantly prolonged using femtosecond laser pulse sequence, which is generated from a chirped pulse amplification laser system with pure multi-pass amplification chain. Time-resolved fluorescence images and electrical conductivity measurement are used to characterize the lifetime of the plasma channel. Prolongation of plasma channel lifetime up to microsecond level is observed using the pulse sequence.

Quasi-steady-state air plasma channel produced by a femtosecond laser pulse sequence

A long air plasma channel can be formed by filamentation of intense femtosecond laser pulses. However, the lifetime of the plasma channel produced by a single femtosecond laser pulse is too short (only a few nanoseconds) for many potential applications based on the conductivity of the plasma channel. Therefore, prolonging the lifetime of the plasma channel is one of the key challenges in the research of femtosecond laser filamentation. In this study, a unique femtosecond laser source was developed to produce a high-quality femtosecond laser pulse sequence with an interval of 2.9 ns and a uniformly distributed single-pulse energy. The metre scale quasi-steady-state plasma channel with a 60–80 ns lifetime was formed by such pulse sequences in air. The simulation study for filamentation of dual femtosecond pulses indicated that the plasma channel left by the previous pulse was weakly affected the filamentation of the next pulse in sequence under our experimental conditions.

Angular distribution of terahertz emission from laser interactions with solid targets

Intense femtosecond laser-plasma interactions can produce high power terahertz radiations. In our experiment, the polished copper target was irradiated by a p-polarized laser with intensity of more than 1018 W/cm2 at an incident angle of 67.5° from the target normal. The THz energy from three different detection angles is measured. The maximum emission is found in the direction at an angle of 45° to the laser backward direction, which is more than one order of magnitude higher than in the other two directions. A simple theoretical model has been established to explain the measurements.

Numerical studies of third-harmonic generation in laser filament in air perturbed by plasma spot

Third-harmonic emission from laser filament intercepted by plasma spot is studied by numerical simulations. Significant enhancement of the third-harmonic generation is obtained due to the disturbance of the additional plasma. The contribution of the pure plasma effect and the possible plasma-enhanced third-order susceptibility on the third-harmonic generation enhancement are compared. It is shown that the plasma induced cancellation of destructive interference [Y. Liu et al., Opt. Commun. 284, 4706 (2011)] of two-colored filament is the dominant mechanism of the enhancement of third-harmonic generation.

Temporal evolution of femtosecond laser filament detected via magnetic field around plasma current

The temporal evolution of electron density of air plasma filament induced by femtosecond laser pulse has been studied experimentally by a single shot electromagnetic induction method. Based on the detection of transient magnetic field around the electrified filament by an induction coil, the current in filament as well as electron density is estimated from the time dependent electromotive force signal. The experimental results indicate that our method significantly reduced the self-oscillation and interference signal, which are difficult to avoid in previous standard electrical diagnostic of filament, meanwhile the reliable temporal evolution of the electron density of filament is obtained.

Transmission Degradation of Femtosecond Laser Pulses in Opened Cone Targets

Irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses with different energies, opened cone targets behave very differently in the transmission of incident laser pulses. The targets, each with an opening angle of 71? and an opening of 5 ?m, are fabricated using standard semiconductor technology. When the incident laser energy is low and no pre-plasma is generated on the side walls of the cones, the cone target acts like an optical device to reflect the laser pulse, and 15% of the laser energy can be transmitted through the cones. In contrast, when the incident laser energy is high enough to generate pre-plasmas by the pre-pulse of the main pulse that fills the inner cone, the cone with the plasmas will block the transmission of the laser, which leads to a decrease in laser transmission compared with the low-energy case with no plasma. Simulation results using optical software in the low-energy case, and using the particle-in-cell code in the high-energy case, are primarily in agreement with the experimental results.

Micro focusing of fast electrons with opened cone targets

Using opened reentrant cone silicon targets, we have demonstrated the effect of micro focusing of fast electrons generated in intense laser-plasma interactions. When an intense femtosecond laser pulse is focused tightly onto one of the side walls of the cone, fast electron beam emitted along the side wall is observed. When a line focus spot, which is long enough to irradiate both of the side walls of the cone simultaneously, is used, two electron beams emitted along each side wall, respectively, are observed. The two beams should cross each other near the open tip of the cone, resulting in micro focusing. We use a two-dimensional Particle-In-Cell code to simulate the electron emission both in opened and closed cone targets. The simulation results of the opened cone targets are in agreement with the experimental observation while the results of the closed cone targets do not show the micro focusing effect.