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Liu Y, Yin F, Wang TJ, Leng Y, Li R, Xu Z, Chin SL. Stable, intense supercontinuum light generation at 1 kHz by electric field assisted femtosecond laser filamentation in air. LIGHT, SCIENCE & APPLICATIONS 2024; 13:42. [PMID: 38307847 PMCID: PMC10837124 DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01364-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Revised: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/19/2023] [Indexed: 02/04/2024]
Abstract
Supercontinuum (SC) light source has advanced ultrafast laser spectroscopy in condensed matter science, biology, physics, and chemistry. Compared to the frequently used photonic crystal fibers and bulk materials, femtosecond laser filamentation in gases is damage-immune for supercontinuum generation. A bottleneck problem is the strong jitters from filament induced self-heating at kHz repetition rate level. We demonstrated stable kHz supercontinuum generation directly in air with multiple mJ level pulse energy. This was achieved by applying an external DC electric field to the air plasma filament. Beam pointing jitters of the 1 kHz air filament induced SC light were reduced by more than 2 fold. The stabilized high repetition rate laser filament offers the opportunity for stable intense SC generation and its applications in air.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaoxiang Liu
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Fukang Yin
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Tie-Jun Wang
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
- Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Yuxin Leng
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
- Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Ruxin Li
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
- Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Zhizhan Xu
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - See Leang Chin
- Centre d'Optique, Photonique et Laser (COPL) and Département de physique, de génie physique et d'optique, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada
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Formation of Nano- and Micro-Scale Surface Features Induced by Long-Range Femtosecond Filament Laser Ablation. NANOMATERIALS 2022; 12:nano12142493. [PMID: 35889720 PMCID: PMC9317658 DOI: 10.3390/nano12142493] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2022] [Revised: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 07/09/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
In this work, we study the characteristics of femtosecond-filament-laser–matter interactions and laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) at a beam-propagation distance up to 55 m. The quantification of the periodicity of filament-induced self-organized surface structures was accomplished by SEM and AFM measurements combined with the use of discrete two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (2D-FFT) analysis, at different filament propagation distances. The results show that the size of the nano-scale surface features increased with ongoing laser filament processing and, further, periodic ripples started to form in the ablation-spot center after irradiation with five spatially overlapping pulses. The effective number of irradiating filament pulses per spot area affected the developing surface texture, with the period of the low spatial frequency LIPSS reducing notably at a high pulse number. The high regularity of the filament-induced ripples was verified by the demonstration of the angle-of-incidence-dependent diffraction of sunlight. This work underlines the potential of long-range femtosecond filamentation for energy delivery at remote distances, with suppressed diffraction and long depth focus, which can be used in biomimetic laser surface engineering and remote-sensing applications.
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Guo J, Sun L, Liu J, Shang B, Tao S, Zhang N, Lin L, Zhang Z. Beam Wander Restrained by Nonlinearity of Femtosecond Laser Filament in Air. SENSORS 2022; 22:s22134995. [PMID: 35808489 PMCID: PMC9269853 DOI: 10.3390/s22134995] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2022] [Revised: 06/24/2022] [Accepted: 06/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
The filamentation process under atmospheric turbulence is critical to its remote-sensing application. The effects of turbulence intensity and location on the spatial distribution of femtosecond laser filaments in the air were studied. The experimental results show that the nonlinear effect of the filament can restrain the beam wander. When the turbulence intensity was 3.31×10−13 cm−2/3, the mean deviation of the wander of the filament center was only 27% of that of the linear transmitted beam. The change in turbulence location would lead to a change in the standard deviation of the beam centroid drift. Results also show that the filament length would be shortened, and that the filament would end up earlier in a turbulent environment. Since the filamentation-based LIDAR has been highly expected as an evolution multitrace pollutant remote-sensing technique, the study promotes our understanding of how turbulence influences filamentation and advances atmospheric remote sensing by applying a filament.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiewei Guo
- Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; (J.G.); (L.S.); (J.L.); (B.S.); (S.T.); (N.Z.); (L.L.)
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-Scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Lu Sun
- Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; (J.G.); (L.S.); (J.L.); (B.S.); (S.T.); (N.Z.); (L.L.)
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-Scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Jinpei Liu
- Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; (J.G.); (L.S.); (J.L.); (B.S.); (S.T.); (N.Z.); (L.L.)
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-Scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Binpeng Shang
- Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; (J.G.); (L.S.); (J.L.); (B.S.); (S.T.); (N.Z.); (L.L.)
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-Scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Shishi Tao
- Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; (J.G.); (L.S.); (J.L.); (B.S.); (S.T.); (N.Z.); (L.L.)
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-Scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Nan Zhang
- Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; (J.G.); (L.S.); (J.L.); (B.S.); (S.T.); (N.Z.); (L.L.)
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-Scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Lie Lin
- Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; (J.G.); (L.S.); (J.L.); (B.S.); (S.T.); (N.Z.); (L.L.)
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Sensor and Sensing Network Technology, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Zhi Zhang
- Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; (J.G.); (L.S.); (J.L.); (B.S.); (S.T.); (N.Z.); (L.L.)
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Sensor and Sensing Network Technology, Tianjin 300350, China
- Correspondence:
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Wolf JP. Short-pulse lasers for weather control. REPORTS ON PROGRESS IN PHYSICS. PHYSICAL SOCIETY (GREAT BRITAIN) 2018; 81:026001. [PMID: 28783040 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6633/aa8488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Filamentation of ultra-short TW-class lasers recently opened new perspectives in atmospheric research. Laser filaments are self-sustained light structures of 0.1-1 mm in diameter, spanning over hundreds of meters in length, and producing a low density plasma (1015-1017 cm-3) along their path. They stem from the dynamic balance between Kerr self-focusing and defocusing by the self-generated plasma and/or non-linear polarization saturation. While non-linearly propagating in air, these filamentary structures produce a coherent supercontinuum (from 230 nm to 4 µm, for a 800 nm laser wavelength) by self-phase modulation (SPM), which can be used for remote 3D-monitoring of atmospheric components by Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging). However, due to their high intensity (1013-1014 W cm-2), they also modify the chemical composition of the air via photo-ionization and photo-dissociation of the molecules and aerosols present in the laser path. These unique properties were recently exploited for investigating the capability of modulating some key atmospheric processes, like lightning from thunderclouds, water vapor condensation, fog formation and dissipation, and light scattering (albedo) from high altitude clouds for radiative forcing management. Here we review recent spectacular advances in this context, achieved both in the laboratory and in the field, reveal their underlying mechanisms, and discuss the applicability of using these new non-linear photonic catalysts for real scale weather control.
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Affiliation(s)
- J P Wolf
- Department of Applied Physics (GAP), University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
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