Compression of femtosecond laser pulses in thin one-dimensional photonic crystals

Formation and properties of spatially inhomogeneous plasma density gratings

Volume plasma density gratings receive increasing interest since, compared to solid-state optical media, they posses significantly higher damage thresholds. The gratings are produced by counterpropagating laser pulses in underdense plasma. When analyzing their optical properties, usually they are assumed to be homogeneous in space. The latter assumption, however, breaks down, especially when the gratings are produced by short high-power laser pump pulses. Then, generically the plasma grating posses an inhomogeneous envelope which results from the superposition of the pump pulses envelopes. The present paper discusses the effect of grating inhomogeneity on reflection and transmission of probe pulses. A Gaussian plasma density grating becomes an apodized grating which offers significant improvement over homogeneous gratings due to side-lobe suppression while maintaining reflectivity and a narrow bandwidth. On the other hand, the reflected probe pulses receive a chirp which depends on the spatial scale. For a Gaussian grating a cubic spectral phase appears. Numerical particle-in-cell simulations are supported by theoretical analysis based on coupled mode equations as well as an effective medium approach.

Dispersion of 20 fs pulses through band edges of cholesteric liquid crystals

We demonstrate the ability to manipulate ultrashort pulses in cholesteric liquid crystals in the linear regime. We present an extensive analysis of the spectral changes undergone by 20fs pulses when propagating through band edges of cholesteric liquid crystals. The accurate quantification of the introduced optical dispersion opens the way to controlled stretching and compression of ultrashort pulses. The behaviors of cholesteric liquid crystal films with different thickness, bandgap and structural parameters (monotonic pitch versus pitch-gradient films) are compared. A statistical approach is disclosed to fidelize and deepen the set of experimental investigations.

Transient Plasma Photonic Crystals for High-Power Lasers

A new type of transient photonic crystals for high-power lasers is presented. The crystal is produced by counterpropagating laser beams in plasma. Trapped electrons and electrically forced ions generate a strong density grating. The lifetime of the transient photonic crystal is determined by the ballistic motion of ions. The robustness of the photonic crystal allows one to manipulate high-intensity laser pulses. The scheme of the crystal is analyzed here by 1D Vlasov simulations. Reflection or transmission of high-power laser pulses are predicted by particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that a transient plasma photonic crystal may act as a tunable mirror for intense laser pulses. Generalizations to 2D and 3D configurations are possible.

Fibonacci-like photonic structure for femtosecond pulse compression

The compression of femtosecond laser pulses by linear quasiperiodic and periodic photonic multilayer structures is studied both experimentally and theoretically. We compare the compression performance of a Fibonacci and a periodic structure with similar total thickness and the same number of layers, and find the performance to be higher in the Fibonacci case, as predicted by numerical simulation. This compression enhancement takes place due to the larger group velocity dispersion at a defect resonance of the transmission spectrum of the Fibonacci structure. We demonstrate that the Fibonacci structure with the thickness of only 2.8 microm can compress a phase-modulated laser pulse by up to 30%. The possibility for compression of laser pulses with different characteristics in a single multilayer is explored. The operation of the compressor in the reflection regime has been modeled, and we show numerically that the reflected laser pulse is subjected to real compression: not only does its duration decrease but also its amplitude rises.

Moving and stationary spatial-temporal solitons in a resonantly absorbing Bragg reflector

Spatial-temporal characteristics of ultrashort optical pulses in a resonantly absorbing Bragg reflector are numerically evaluated. The moving and stationary spatial-temporal gap solitons are shown to exist in the photonic structure for a finite spatially-distributed light field in a finite thickness sample. A practical method of trapping light pulses in the photonic structure is presented.