Xiaohong Song

Origin of unipolar half-cycle pulses generation in inversion symmetric media

We investigate the physical mechanism of unipolar half-cycle pulses generation in resonant two-level media with inversion symmetry. The unipolar half-cycle pulse contains substantial nonzero dc or zero-frequency component in its Fourier spectrum of the electric field. Here the origin of zero-frequency component generation in inversion symmetric media driven by symmetric electric field is identified. We show that in the regime of extreme nonlinear optics, i.e. the Rabi frequency is comparable to or even larger than the carrier frequency of the laser pulse, the time evolution of the polarization can display obvious up-down asymmetric structure under certain conditions, which manifests in the zero-frequency component generation, and is responsible for the formation of unipolar half-cycle pulses in the course of pulse propagation.

Molecular photoelectron holography with circularly polarized laser pulses

We investigate the photoelectron momentum distribution of molecular-ion H2+driven by ultrashort intense circularly polarized laser pulses. Both numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) and a quasiclassical model indicate that the photoelectron holography (PH) with circularly polarized pulses can occur in molecule. It is demonstrated that the interference between the direct electron wave and rescattered electron wave from one core to its neighboring core induces the PH. Moreover, the results of the TDSE predict that there is a tilt angle between the interference pattern of the PH and the direction perpendicular to the molecular axis. Furthermore, the tilt angle is sensitively dependent on the wavelength of the driven circularly polarized pulse, which is confirmed by the quasiclassical calculations. The PH induced by circularly polarized laser pulses provides a tool to resolve the electron dynamics and explore the spatial information of molecular structures.

Unraveling nonadiabatic ionization and Coulomb potential effect in strong-field photoelectron holography

Strong field photoelectron holography has been proposed as a means for interrogating the spatial and temporal information of electrons and ions in a dynamic system. After ionization, part of the electron wave packet may directly go to the detector (the reference wave), while another part may be driven back and scatters off the ion(the signal wave). The interference hologram of the two waves may be used to extract target information embedded in the collision process. Unlike conventional optical holography, however, propagation of the electron wave packet is affected by the Coulomb potential as well as by the laser field. In addition, electrons are emitted over the whole laser pulse duration, thus multiple interferences may occur. In this work, we used a generalized quantum-trajectory Monte Carlo method to investigate the effect of Coulomb potential and the nonadiabatic subcycle ionization on the photoelectron hologram. We showed that photoelectron hologram can be well described only when the effect of nonadiabatic ionization is accounted for, and Coulomb potential can be neglected only in the tunnel ionization regime. Our results help paving the way for establishing photoelectron holography for probing spatial and dynamic properties of atoms and molecules.

Attosecond interference induced by Coulomb-field-driven transverse backward-scattering electron wave packets

A universal interference structure is found in the photoelectron momentum distribution of atoms in intense infrared laser field. Theoretical analysis shows that this structure can be attributed to a form of Coulomb-field-driven backward-scattering photoelectrons in the direction perpendicular to the laser field, in contrast to the conventional rescattering along the laser polarization direction. This transverse backward-scattering process is closely related to a family of photoelectrons initially ionized within a time interval of less than 200 as around the crest of the laser electric field. Those electrons, acquiring near-zero return energy in the laser field, will be pulled back solely by the ionic Coulomb field and backscattered in the transverse direction. Moreover, this rescattering process mainly occurs at the first or second return time, giving rise to different phases of the photoelectrons. The interference between these photoelectrons leads to unique curved interference fringes which are observable for most current intense field experiments, opening another way to record the electron dynamics in atoms and molecules on a time scale much shorter than an optical cycle.

Carrier?envelope phase dependence of a half-cycle soliton generation in asymmetric media

We investigate the carrier?envelope phase dependence of the unipolar half-cycle soliton pulse generation when few-cycle ultrashort laser pulses propagate in resonant asymmetric media. It is found that the half-cycle soliton pulse generation depends on both the permanent dipole moment and the electric field shape of the incident few-cycle ultrashort pulse. The irradiation of low-frequency electromagnetic waves superposes with the incident few-cycle ultrashort pulse, which leads to the generation of half-cycle solitons in quantum systems with broken inversion symmetry. Since the electric field shape of the incident few-cycle ultrashort laser pulse depends sensitively on the carrier?envelope phase, the generated half-cycle solitons depend on the carrier?envelope phase of the incident pulse.

Phase-dependent above-barrier ionization of excited-state electrons

The carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-dependent above-barrier ionization (ABI) has been investigated in order to probe the bound-state electron dynamics. It is found that when the system is initially prepared in the excited state, the ionization yield asymmetry between left and right sides can occur both in low-energy and high-energy parts of the photoelectron spectra. Moreover, in electron momentum map, a new interference effect along the direction perpendicular to the laser polarization is found. We show that this interference is related to the competition among different excited states. The interference effect is dependent on CEPs of few-cycle probe pulses, which can be used to trace the superposition information and control the electron wave packet of low excited states.

Soliton frequency shifts in subwavelength structures

We investigate the soliton frequency shifts for few-cycle ultrashort laser pulses propagating through resonant media embedded within subwavelength structures, and we elucidate the underlying physics. Full-wave Maxwell?Bloch equations are solved numerically by using the finite-difference time-domain method. It is shown that both soliton blueshift and redshift can occur by changing the period of the structures. We found that the rereflected waves play an essential role in this process. When the pulse propagates through the periodic structures, the reflected waves can be rereflected back by the thin layers, which can further induce the controllable frequency shifts of the generated solitons. This suggests a way to tailor the light solitons over a large spectral range.

Direction-tunable enhanced emission from a subwavelength metallic double-nanoslit structure

Controlling light emission out of subwavelength nanoslit/aperture structures is of great important for highly integrated photonic circuits. Here we propose a new method to achieve direction-tunable emission based on a compact metallic microcavity with double nanoslit. Our method combines the principles of Youngs interference and surface plasmon polaritons interference. We show that the direction of the far-field beam can be controlled over a wide range of angles by manipulating the frequency and relative phase of light arriving at the two slits, which holds promise for applications in the ultracompact optoelectronic devices.

Momentum mapping of continuum-electron wave-packet interference

We analyze the two-dimensional photoelectrons momentum distribution of Ar atom ionized by midinfrared laser pulses and mainly concentrate on the energy range below 2Up. By using a generalized quantum trajectory Monte Carlo (GQTMC) simulation and comparing with the numerical solution of time-dependent Schrodinger equation (TDSE), we show that in the deep tunneling regime, the rescattered electron trajectories plays unimportant role and the interplay between the intracycle and inter-cycle results in a ring-like interference pattern. The ring-like interference pattern will mask the holographic interference structure in the low longitudinal momentum region. When the nonadiabatic tunneling contributes significantly to ionization, i.e., the Keldysh parameter 1, the contribution of the rescattered electron trajectories become large, thus holographic interference pattern can be clearly observed. Our results help paving the way for gaining physical insight into ultrafast electron dynamic process with attosecond temporal resolution.

Photonic crystal waveguides intersection for resonant quantum dot optical spectroscopy detection

Using a finite-difference time-domain method, we theoretically investigate the optical spectra of crossing perpendicular photonic crystal waveguides with quantum dots embedded in the central rod. The waveguides are designed so that the light mainly propagates along one direction and the cross talk is greatly reduced in the transverse direction. It is shown that when a quantum dot (QD) is resonant with the cavity, strong coupling can be observed via both the transmission and crosstalk spectrum. If the cavity is far off-resonant from the QD, both the cavity mode and the QD signal can be detected in the transverse direction since the laser field is greatly suppressed in this direction. This structure could have strong implications for resonant excitation and in-plane detection of QD optical spectroscopy.