Search results for "MTO"

Achromatic diffraction of femtosecond light pulses

2003

Diffraction of electromagnetic waves in free space is a physical phenomenon that explicitly depends on the wavelength of light radiation. As an ultrashort-pulsed waveform consists of many frequency components that are coherently superposed, diffraction of a femtosecond pulse passing through an aperture radically differs from that under continuous wave (CW) monochromatic illumination. Note that the spectral width of a 5 fs pulsed beam is approximately 400 nm, which roughly corresponds to the entire visible spectrum bandwidth. The spectral distribution of the source results in the chromatic distortion, both lateral and axial, of the optical field diffracted by the aperture. This detrimental e…

Dispersion-compensated beam-splitting of femtosecond light pulses: Wave optics analysis

2007

Recently, using parageometrical optics concepts, a hybrid, diffractive-refractive, lens triplet has been suggested to significantly improve the spatiotemporal resolution of light spots in multifocal processing with femtosecond laser pulses. Here, we carry out a rigorous wave-optics analysis, including the spatiotemporal nature of the wave equation, to elucidate both the spatial extent of the diffractive spots and the temporal duration of the pulse at the output plane. Specifically, we show nearly transform-limited behavior of diffraction maxima. Moreover, the temporal broadening of the pulse is related to the group velocity dispersion, which can be pre-compensated for in practical applicati…

Pulse Generation and Shaping Using Fiber Nonlinearities

2017

Nonlinear pulse shaping and polarization dynamics in mode-locked fiber lasers

2014

International audience; We review our recent progress on the study of new nonlinear mechanisms of pulse shaping in passively mode-locked fiber lasers. These include a mode-locking regime featuring pulses with a triangular distribution of the intensity, and spectral compression arising from nonlinear pulse propagation. We also report on our recent experimental studies unveiling new types of vector solitons with processing states of polarization for multi-pulse and tightly bound-state soliton (soliton molecule) operations in a carbon nanotube (CNT) mode-locked fiber laser with anomalous dispersion cavity.

Photonic waveform generator by linear shaping of four spectral sidebands

2015

International audience; Changing the optical phase difference between four spectral sidebands is sufficient to synthesize various pulse shapes. Experiments at 40 GHz confirm that high quality parabolic, triangular or flat-top temporal intensity profiles can be achieved.

Self-similarity in ultrafast nonlinear optics

2007

International audience; Recent developments in nonlinear optics have led to the discovery of a new class of ultrashort pulse, the `optical similariton'. Optical similaritons arise when the interaction of nonlinearity, dispersion and gain in a high-power fibre amplifier causes the shape of an arbitrary input pulse to converge asymptotically to a pulse whose shape is self-similar. In comparison with optical solitons, which rely on a delicate balance of nonlinearity and anomalous dispersion and which can become unstable with increasing intensity, similaritons are more robust at high pulse powers. The simplicity and widespread availability of the components needed to build a self-similar amplif…

High-visibility interference fringes with femtosecond laser radiation.

2009

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an interferometer for femtosecond pulses with spectral bandwidth about 100 nm. The scheme is based on a Michelson interferometer with a dispersion compensating module. A diffractive lens serves the purpose of equalizing the optical-path-length difference for a wide range of frequencies. In this way, it is possible to register high-contrast interference fringes with micrometric resolution over the whole area of a commercial CCD sensor for broadband femtosecond pulses.

Diffractive optics for processing ultrashort light pulses

2011

In this work we combine, in principle, two disjoint optical fields, diffractive optics and ultrashort light radiation. This combination allows us to manipulate in a very unconventional manner femtosecond pulses and, on the other hand, to implement a set of novel applications. In our case we have focused our attention on material processing and biophotonics applications.

Analytical Evaluation of the Temporal Focal Shift for Arbitrary Pulse Shapes

2004

In this letter, we analyze the propagation of linearly chirped arbitrary-shaped light pulses through a parabolic dispersive medium to derive an analytical formula of assessing the location of the transverse plane where the pulse root-mean-square width is minimum. Closed form expressions for compressed pulses, which are independent of the input pulse shape, are demonstrated. In this way, we demonstrate that both the relative temporal focal shift and the minimum pulsewidth are solely determined by two factors, the temporal equivalent of the Fresnel number of the geometry and the pulse quality factor, i.e., the temporal analogue of the spatial M/sup 2/ beam quality factor. Some examples are di…

Interpretation of negative birefringence observed in strong-field optical pump-probe experiments: High-order Kerr and plasma grating effects

2013

The analysis of negative birefringence optically induced in major air components (Loriot et al., [1, 2]) is revisited in light of the recently reported plasma grating-induced phase-shift effect predicted for strong field pump-probe experiments (Wahlstrand and Milchberg, [3]). The nonlinear birefrin- gence induced by a short and intense laser pulse in argon is measured by femtosecond time-resolved polarimetry. The experiments are performed with degenerate colors, where the pump and probe beam share the same spectrum, or with two different colors and non-overlapping spectra. The in- terpretation of the experimental results is substantiated using a numerical 3D+1 model accounting for nonlinear…