Yang Yu-Jun

Frequencies-Selected Enhancement of the Extended High-Order Harmonic Generation Plateau from a United Two-Atom System Irradiated by a Combined Pulse

We present a high-order harmonic generation (HHG) spectrum from a united two-atom system exposed to a combined laser pulse, by numerically solving a one-dimensional time-dependent Schrodinger equation. The combined laser pulse is composed of a low-frequency femtosecond pulse and a high-frequency attosecond one with respective appropriate amplitudes. For a suitable inter-nuclear separation, the harmonic emission efficiencies near the second cutoff of the extended plateau can be effectively enhanced by more than four orders of magnitude compared with the case of the low-frequency pulse alone. Such a combined pulse irradiating on the united two-atom system ionizes each atom, in a large rate (but not to a too large ionization yield), mainly at a particular time-interval. When the ionized electron from an atom reaches at the vicinity of the other atom and recombines with it, significant HHG enhancement is achieved for particular harmonics. This result, to our knowledge, is one of the best up to now in the endeavor for dramatically extending the width and simultaneously enhancing the height of the plateau.

A Theoretical Strategy to Generate an Isolated 80-Attosecond Pulse

Using a linearly polarized, phase-stabilized 2.66-femtosecond driving pulse of 400 nm central wavelength orthogonally combined with another linearly polarized long pulse of 800 nm central wavelength irradiating jointly on the helium atom, we demonstrate theoretically the generation of a clean isolated 80-attosecond pulse in the spectral region of 93–155 electron volts in a two-dimensional model.

High-intensity molecular harmonic generation without ionization

We theoretically investigate high-order harmonic generation from H2+ in an infrared laser field. Our numerical simulations show that a highly efficient plateau structure exists in the molecular harmonic spectrum. Under the action of the infrared laser pulse, the bound electronic wave packet in a potential well has enough time to tunnel through the effective potential barrier, which is formed by the molecular potential and the infrared laser field, and then recombine with the neighboring nucleus emitting a harmonic photon. During the entire dynamic process, because the wave packet is mainly located in the effective potential, the diffusion effect is of no significance, and thus a highly efficient harmonic plateau can be achieved. Specifically, the cut-off frequency of the plateau is linearly scaled with the peak amplitude of the infrared laser electric field, which may open another route to examine the internuclear distance of the molecule. Furthermore, one may detect the molecular bond lengths using the harmonic plateau.

Isolated attosecond pulse generation from atom radiated by a three-color laser pulse

We theoretically investigate high-order harmonic and attosecond pulse generation from helium atom in a three-color laser field, which is synthesized by 10 fs/800 nm Ti-sapphire laser and a two-color field consisting of 30 fs/532 nm and 30 fs/1330 nm pulses. Compared with harmonic spectrum generated by a monochromatic field, the harmonics generated from the synthesized three-color field show a supercontinuum spectrum with a bandwidth of 235 eV, ranging from the 154th to the 306th order harmonic. This phenomenon can be attributed to the fact that the ionization of atoms as well as motion of ionized electron can be effectively controlled in the three-color field. Therefore, an isolated 46-as pulse can be generated by superposing supercontinuum from the 160th to the 210th order harmonics.

Atomic high-order harmonic generation from a circularly polarized laser pulse

We demonstrate theoretically that the high-order harmonic of an atom can be generated by a circularly polarized laser pulse. The harmonic spectrum shows a clear cutoff with an energy Ip + 2Up. In particular, the high-order harmonic generation comes from the multiple recombination of the ionized electron with non-zero initial velocity. These results are verified by the classical model theory and the time-frequency analysis of a harmonic spectrum.

Field-free orientation of diatomic molecule via the linearly polarized resonant pulses

We propose a scheme to coherently control the field-free orientation of NO molecule whose rotational temperature is above 0 K. It is found that the maximum molecular orientation is affected by two factors: one is the sum of the population of M = 0 rotational states and the other is their distribution, however, their distribution plays a much more significant role in molecular orientation than the sum of their population. By adopting a series of linearly polarized pulses resonant with the rotational states, the distribution of M = 0 rotational states is well rearranged. Though the number of pulses used is small, a relatively high orientation degree can be obtained. This scheme provides a promising approach to the achievement of a good orientation effect.

Defocusing role in femtosecond filamentation: Higher-order Kerr effect or plasma effect?*

The femtosecond filamentation in the classical and high-order Kerr (HOK) models is numerically investigated by adopting multi-photon ionization (MPI) cross section with different values. It is found that in the case that the MPI cross section is relatively small, there exists a big difference between the electron density as well as clamped intensity calculated in the classical model and those calculated in the HOK one, while in the case that the MPI cross section is relatively large, the electron density and clamped intensity calculated in the two models are nearly in agreement with each other, and under this circumstance, even if the higher-order nonlinear terms do exist, the free-charge generation and the associated defocusing in a filament are enough to mask their effects. The different behaviors of the maximum intensity and on-axis electron density at the collapse position with the pulse duration provides an approach to determine which effect plays the dominant defocusing role. These results demonstrate that it is ionization that results in the difference between the two models.

Investigation on the influence of atomic potentials on the above threshold ionization

We systematically investigate the influence of atomic potentials on the above-threshold ionization (ATI) spectra in one-dimensional (1D) cases and compare them with the three-dimensional (3D) case by numerically solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. It is found that the direct ionization plateau and the rescattering plateau of the ATI spectrum in the 3D case can be well reproduced by the 1D ATI spectra calculated from the supersolid-core potential and the soft-core potential, respectively. By analyzing the factors that affect the yield of the ATI spectrum, we propose a modified-potential with which we can reproduce the overall 3D ATI spectrum. In addition, the influence of the incident laser intensities and frequencies on the ATI spectra calculated from the proposed modified potential is studied.

Generation of a Super Strong Attosecond Pulse from an Atomic Superposition State Irradiated by a Shape-Optimized Short Pulse

Using a linearly polarized, phase-stabilized 3-fs driving pulse of 800 nm central wavelength shape-optimized on its ascending edge by its an amplitude-reduced pulse irradiating on a superposition state of the helium atom, we demonstrate theoretically the generation of a super strong isolated 176-attosecond pulse in the spectral region of 93–124 eV. The unusually high intensity of this attosecond pulse is marked by the Rabi-like oscillations emerging in the time-dependent populations of the ground state and the continuum during the occurrence of the electron recombination, which is for the first time observed in this work.

Cyclic State Orientation of Polar Molecules Produced by a Train of Half-Cycle Pulse Clusters of a Long Repetition Period

Using a variational method, we derive the optimal population distribution of angular momentum eigenstates for any given population range in a rotational wavepacket within the field-free cyclic state orientation framework. Correspondingly, we devise a train of half-cycle pulse clusters to purposively make the structure of the computed wavepacket approach the optimal population distribution, so that we can now utilize much more powerful means to realize an ideal orientation goal.