Search results for "ultrashort pulse"
showing 10 items of 153 documents
Dynamics of ground and excited state chlorophylla molecules in pyridine solution probed by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy
1999
Abstract Femtosecond pump–probe spectroscopy was used to investigate the ground and excited state dynamics of chlorophyll a (Chl a ) in pyridine following excitation by a 100 fs optical pulse. The transient absorption spectrum and kinetics reveal spectral evolution on two ultrafast time scales: ∼100 fs and ∼3 ps. We attribute these dynamics to ground-state transient hole-burning and solvation dynamics. Transient absorption anisotropy at early times (∼500 fs) was measured for Chl a in pyridine and shows a pronounced wavelength dependence, where anisotropy varies between 0 and 0.5. Strong contribution from excited state absorption is the origin of the variation.
Ultrafast Electronic and Vibrational Energy Relaxation of Fe(acetylacetonate)3 in Solution
2007
Transient mid-infrared spectroscopy is used to probe the dynamics initiated by excitation of ligand-to-metal (400 nm) and metal-to-ligand (345 nm) charge transfer states of FeIII complexed with acetylacetonate (Fe(acac)3, where acac stands for deprotonated anion of acetylacetone) in solution. Transient spectra in the 1500-1600 cm-1 range show two broad absorptions red-shifted from the bleach of the nu(CO) (approximately 1575 cm-1) and nu(C=C) (approximately 1525 cm-1) ground state absorptions. Bleach recovery kinetics has a time constant of 12-19 ps in chloroform and tetrachloroethylene and it decreases by 30-40% in a 10% mixture of methanol in tetrachloroethylene. The transient absorptions…
Ytterbium-doped fibers for high-power fiber lasers
2021
Ytterbium (Yb) doped optical fibers are widely used in high-power applications and ultrafast lasing since they show adequate power-handling capability and provide desirable beam quality. Yb-doped fibers with large core area can support high power but often act as a multimode fiber and compromise the output beam quality. Hence, it is important to attain a proper balance between the power-handling capability and the beam quality. Yb-doped fibers as a gain medium in pulsed fiber laser systems are prone to nonlinear optical effects due to the presence of high peak power in the ultrashort pulses. Nonlinearity such as self phase modulation (SPM) affects the width and the shape of the pulse, both …
How the Protein Environment Can Tune the Energy, the Coupling, and the Ultrafast Dynamics of Interacting Chlorophylls: The Example of the Water-Solub…
2020
The interplay between active molecules and the protein environment in light-harvesting complexes tunes the photophysics and the dynamical properties of pigment–protein complexes in a subtle way, which is not fully understood. Here we characterized the photophysics and the ultrafast dynamics of four variants of the water-soluble chlorophyll protein (WSCP) as an ideal model system to study the behavior of strongly interacting chlorophylls. We found that when coordinated by the WSCP protein, the presence of the formyl group in chlorophyll b replacing the methyl group in chlorophyll a strongly affects the exciton energy and the dynamics of the system, opening up the possibility of tuning the ph…
Ultrafast Metamorphosis of a Complex Charge Density Wave in Tantalumdiselenite
2016
Using ultrafast electron diffraction, we record the transformation between a nearly-commensurate and an incommensurate charge-density-wave in 1T-TaS2, which takes place orders of magnitude faster than previously observed for commensurate-to-incommensurate transitions.
Ultrafast Metamorphosis of a Complex Charge-Density Wave
2015
Modulated phases, commensurate or incommensurate with the host crystal lattice, are ubiquitous in solids. The transition between such phases involves formation and rearrangement of domain walls and is generally slow. Using ultrafast electron diffraction, we directly record the photoinduced transformation between a nearly commensurate and an incommensurate charge-density-wave phase in 1T-TaS(2). The transformation takes place on the picosecond time scale, orders of magnitude faster than previously observed for commensurate-to-incommensurate transitions. The transition speed and mechanism can be linked to the peculiar nanoscale structure of the photoexcited nearly commensurate phase.
Bremsstrahlung from a repulsive potential: attosecond pulse generation
2008
The collision of an electron against a repulsive potential in the presence of a laser field is investigated. It is found that a sufficiently strong laser field forces the electron to remain in the neighbourhood of the repulsive potential causing bremsstrahlung. By appropriately filtering the emitted signal, an electron in the presence of a repulsive potential is capable of generating attosecond pulses.
Tracking the time-evolution of the electron distribution function in Copper by femtosecond broadband optical spectroscopy
2019
Multitemperature models are nowadays often used to quantify the ultrafast electron-phonon (boson) relaxations and coupling strengths in advanced quantum solids. To test their applicability and limitations, we perform systematic studies of carrier relaxation dynamics in copper, a prototype system for which the two-temperature model (TTM) was initially considered. Using broadband time-resolved optical spectroscopy, we study the time evolution of the electron distribution function, $f(E)$, over a large range of excitation densities. Following intraband optical excitation, $f(E)$ is found to be athermal over several 100 fs, with a substantial part of the absorbed energy already being transferre…
Ultrafast Optical Demagnetization manipulates Nanoscale Spin Structure in Domain Walls
2012
During ultrafast demagnetization of a magnetically ordered solid, angular momentum has to be transferred between the spins, electrons, and phonons in the system on femto- and picosecond timescales. Although the intrinsic spin-transfer mechanisms are intensely debated, additional extrinsic mechanisms arising due to nanoscale heterogeneity have only recently entered the discussion. Here we use femtosecond X-ray pulses from a free-electron laser to study thin film samples with magnetic domain patterns. We observe an infrared-pump-induced change of the spin structure within the domain walls on the sub-picosecond timescale. This domain-topography-dependent contribution connects the intrinsic dem…
Modulational instability and generation of self-induced transparency solitons in resonant optical fibers
2009
International audience; We consider continuous-wave propagation through a fiber doped with two-level resonant atoms, which is described by a system of nonlinear Schrodinger-Maxwell-Bloch (NLS-MB) equations. We identify the modulational instability (MI) conditions required for the generation of ultrashort pulses, in cases of both anomalous and normal GVD (group-velocity dispersion). It is shown that the self-induced transparency (SIT) induces non-conventional MI sidebands. The main result is a prediction of the existence of both bright and dark SIT solitons in the anomalous and normal GVD regimes.