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Temporal pulse shaping is demonstrated using two-beam coupling in a photorefractive crystal. The temporal shape of a temporally stretched pulse is measured after coupling with a strong nonstretched pulse in a photorefractive BaTiO3 crystal, and good agreement with theory is found.
A summary of previously proposed receiver strategies for direct-detection laser ranging receivers is presented. Computer simulations are used to compare performance of candidate implementation strategies in the 1- to 100-photoelectron region. Under the condition of no background radiation, the maximum-likelihood and minimum mean-square error estimators were found to give the same performance for both bell-shaped and rectangular optical-pulse shapes. For signal energies greater than 100 photoelectrons, the root-mean-square range error is shown to decrease as Q to the -1/2 power for bell-shaped pulses and Q to the -1 power for rectangular pulses, where Q represents the average pulse energy. Of several receiver implementations presented, the matched-filter peak detector was found to be preferable. A similar configuration, using a constant-fraction discriminator, exhibited a signal-level dependent time bias.
Many optical ranging systems currently use laser pulses of approximately Gaussian shape with widths of a few nanoseconds or less. The present paper shows that a substantial improvement in accuracy can be obtained for a given pulse length by means of laser ranging systems using conventional length (long) pulses with a sharp leading edge pulse distribution. The accuracy in such a case will improve roughly linearly with the signal strength. Order statistics is used to estimate the round-trip level travel time from the arrival time of the earliest photoelectron.
Rosat observations of the DA white dwarf + K2V binary system V471 Tauri, obtained during the sky survey phase of the mission, are presented. A lower amplitude shorter time-scale variability is seen in both the soft X-ray and EUV bands. This is associated with the white dwarf pulsations previously discovered by Exosat and also observed at optical wavelengths. The minimum in the EUV light curve is found to coincide with the maximum in the optical. This direct comparison of the phases of the optical and EUV pulses confirms the prediction made by an earlier indirect comparison and shows conclusively that the V471 Tau oscillations cannot arise from nonradial g-mode pulsations in the white dwarf. They are argued to be caused by rotation of the white dwarf with accretion-darkened magnetic poles. On the basis of the EUV and optical pulse shapes, the accretion geometry is studied, and it is estimated that the rate of accretion onto the white dwarf is about (4-11) x 10 exp -13 solar mass/yr.
Here, a novel all-fiber, hybrid pulse-shaping system based on the temporal stacking of discrete optical picket pulses combined with continuously shaped optical pulses provides 100-ps resolution with the high dynamic range and flexibility required for laser fusion.
We investigate the use of passive intracavity optical filters for controlling the laser output spectrum of a polarization-mode-locked, ultrafast ytterbium fiber laser. The overall lasing bandwidth is increased or extended by strategic choice of the filter cutoff frequency. Overall laser performance, including pulse compression and intensity noise, is investigated for both shortpass and longpass filters with a range of cutoff frequencies. The intracavity filter not only shapes the output spectra, but also provides a route for overall broader bandwidths and shorter pulses in ytterbium fiber lasers. These results demonstrate that spectral shaping with a passive filter is a useful tool to routinely achieve sub-45 fs pulse durations in ytterbium fiber lasers.
High-order harmonics generated by a long intense femtosecond laser are known experimentally to create attosecond pulse trains (APTs). In the time domain, an APT consists of a sequence of sharp attosecond bursts that are equally separated by each half optical cycle. Here, in this work, we show that such well-known features can be modified when a longer wavelength driving laser is used. From our simulations, we show that multiple shorter attosecond sub-bursts exist in the femtosecond pulse train within each half optical cycle and the duration of each sub-burst scales approximately as $λ^{–2}_0$ with the driving laser wavelength λ 0 . We show that such sub-bursts can be found using quantitative rescattering model for harmonics generated from a single atom, and their origin is due to the interference of the quantum orbits from first two returns of the recombining electron. We further show that such sub-bursts can be phase matched under proper laser focusing condition and the position of the gas cell, thus, such new features should be observable experimentally.
Frequency-bin qubits possess unique synergies with wavelength-multiplexed lightwave communications, suggesting valuable opportunities for quantum networking with the existing fiber-optic infrastructure. Although the coherent manipulation of frequency-bin states requires highly controllable multi-spectral-mode interference, the quantum frequency processor (QFP) provides a scalable path for gate synthesis leveraging standard telecom components. Here, we summarize the state of the art in experimental QFP characterization. Distinguishing between physically motivated “open box” approaches that treat the QFP as a multiport interferometer, and “black box” approaches that view the QFP as a general quantum operation, we highlight the assumptions and results of multiple techniques, including quantum process tomography of a tunable beamsplitter—to our knowledge the first full process tomography of any frequency-bin operation. Our findings should inform future characterization efforts as the QFP increasingly moves beyond proof-of-principle tabletop demonstrations toward integrated devices and deployed quantum networking experiments.
The ability to control the amplitude and phase of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) pulses can allow for the extension of optical techniques, such as multidimensional spectroscopy or coherent control, to higher photon energies, for probing and controlling core electronic transitions. However, this requires the ability to make single-shot, and complete, electric field measurements of potentially complex FEL pulses, in order to develop, and verify, pulse shaping strategies. Here, we present direct, single-shot measurements of XUV pulses generated under special operating configurations for producing specific pulse shapes from a laser-seeded XUV FEL. To do this, we built upon our past work using transient grating (TG) cross correlation frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG), where an optical reference pulse is diffracted from an XUV TG produced by a pair of interfering FEL pulses. The resulting nonlinear signal versus frequency and delay, i.e., the FROG trace, contains the electric field of the FEL pulse. The FEL pulse electric field is reconstructed from the FROG trace using a phase retrieval algorithm. Here we confirmed three different pulse shaping strategies for generating chirped, double and multiple FEL pulses by tuning the seed laser and FEL parameters and measuring the resulting shaped FEL pulses with TG XFROG. This work paves the way for generating on-demand pulse shapes with a seeded FEL by improving the characterization of FEL pulses, for transform-limited to more complex shapes.
The miniaturization of optical systems via integrated photonics is critical to the ultimate scalability and performance of photonic quantum processors, yet many longstanding optical signal processing capabilities—such as Fourier-transform pulse shaping—remain unrealized on chip. In this work, we demonstrate on-chip spectral shaping of entangled photons using a multichannel microring-resonator-based silicon photonic pulse shaper. Achieving line-by-line phase control on a 3 GHz grid for two frequency-bin-entangled qudits, the pulse shaper's fine spectral resolution enables control of nanosecond-scale temporal features, which are observed by direct coincidence detection of biphoton correlation functions that show excellent agreement with theory. This work marks a demonstration of biphoton pulse shaping using an integrated spectral shaper and holds significant promise for applications in photonic quantum information processing.
Precise, highly reproducible control of the laser energy is required for high confidence laser–matter interaction research such as in dynamic compression science and high energy density physics. The energy must be adjustable without affecting the pulse shape (time varying intensity) or beam smoothness. We have developed a convenient two-stage energy tuning method for a nominal 100 J, 351 nm (UV) laser. The energy is adjusted in 10 J (10%) increments by operating the laser at full energy and inserting a beam splitter in the laser output. As the splitter is located after the final frequency tripling optics, the UV pulse shape is unchanged. The energy is varied by substituting a splitter of different reflectivity. For finer 3 J (3%) increments, the infrared pulse is attenuated inside the laser before the final amplifier. This requires modest tuning to preserve the pulse shape. The demonstrated variation in shot-to-shot reproducibility is less than +/–2.5 J (5% of the full energy), irrespective of the laser output energy. These approaches can be adapted to most ~100 J class lasers. We describe these techniques and show two examples where they have elucidated the underlying physics in laser shock compression experiments. One used only the beam splitters to establish the pressure for melting in iron. The other combined both techniques to finely increment the peak stress (~2 GPa steps) in germanium to precisely determine the onset and completion of melting—including the melting kinetics. Furthermore, these unambiguous results would not be possible without the developments described here.
This paper explores direct density modulation of high-current electron beam emission from an RF cold cathode using optical excitation. We theoretically study the photo-assisted field emission of periodically bunched electron beams of various pulse shapes under the combined excitation of an RF field and an optical field, using an exact quantum model. Both continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed optical fields are considered. The emission current pulse amplitude, pulse width, electron number density per pulse, as well as pulse shape and its harmonic contents are investigated in detail. For CW photon sources in the UV to NIR range (i.e., 200–1200 nm), increasing the optical intensity under an RF bias tends to change the current pulse from a Gaussian to sinusoidal-like shape, thus offering strong flexibility to control the frequency components in beam current emission. Pulsed photon sources combined with an RF field can produce sharp, high-current electron bunches with pulse duration comparable with or even less than that of the optical pulse. A contour map of the density modulation depth is constructed for different combinations of RF and laser fields. The results provide insight into unlocking new opportunities to achieve direct density modulation during electron current emission by optical means.
Devices that measure the presence of instability in the pulse shapes in trains of ultrashort laser pulses do not exist, so this task necessarily falls to pulse-measurement devices, like Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating (FROG) and its variations, which have proven to be a highly reliable class of techniques for measuring stable trains of ultrashort laser pulses. Fortunately, multi-shot versions of FROG have also been shown to sensitively distinguish trains of stable from those of unstable pulse shapes by displaying readily visible systematic discrepancies between the measured and retrieved traces in the presence of unstable pulse trains. However, the effects of pulse-shape instability and algorithm stagnation can be indistinguishable, so a never-stagnating algorithm—even when instability is present—is required and is generally important. In previous work, we demonstrated that our recently introduced Retrieved-Amplitude N-grid Algorithmic (RANA) approach produces highly reliable (100%) pulse-retrieval in the second-harmonic-generation (SHG) version of FROG for thousands of sample trains of pulses with stable pulse shapes. Further, it does so even for trains of unstable pulse shapes and thus both reliably distinguishes between the two cases and provides a rough measure of the degree of instability as well as a reasonable estimate of most typical pulse parameters. Here, we perform the analogous study for the polarization-gating (PG) and transient-grating (TG) versions of FROG, which are often used for higher-energy pulse trains. We conclude that PG and TG FROG, coupled with the RANA approach, also provide reliable indicators of pulse-shape instability. In addition, for PG and TG FROG, the RANA approach provides an even better estimate of a typical pulse in an unstable pulse train than SHG FROG does, even in cases of significant pulse-shape instability.
Using a stretched hollow core fiber and an acousto-optic modulator based pulse shaper, we demonstrate compression, characterization and shaping of ultrashort pulses from a high average power laser system.
Large-area proportional counters sensitive from 0.6 to 23 keV were used to observe about 3 min of pulsed X-ray emission from NP 0532 during two lunar-occultation experiments. A detailed pulse profile with 65-microsec resolution shows that the X-ray primary-pulse shape is essentially identical to its optical counterpart. Spectral data on the pulsed X-ray emission are presented. A pulse-by-pulse examination of the data shows no evidence for temporal variability.
We implement in situ midcircuit measurement and reset (MCMR) operations on a full-scale trapped-ion quantum computing system by using metastable qubit states in 171 Yb + ions. We compare two methods for isolating data qubits from measured qubits: one shelves the data qubits into the metastable state and the other drives the measured qubit to the metastable state without disturbing the other qubits. We experimentally demonstrate both methods on a crystal of two 171 Yb + ions using both the 𝑆 1/2 ground-state hyperfine clock qubit and the 𝑆 1/2 −𝐷 3/2 optical qubit. These MCMR methods result in errors on the data qubit of about 2% without degrading the measurement fidelity. With straightforward reductions in laser noise, these errors can be suppressed to less than 0.1%. The demonstrated methods allow MCMR to be performed in a single-species ion chain without shuttling or additional qubit-addressing optics, greatly simplifying the system architecture and allowing straightforward integration with existing trapped-ion quantum computers.
A superstructured fiber-grating-based mode selection filter for a single-frequency fiber laser eliminates all free-space components, and makes the laser truly all-fiber. A ring cavity provides for stable operations in both frequency and power. There is no alignment or realignment required. After the fibers and components are spliced together and packaged, there is no need for specially trained technicians for operation or maintenance. It can be integrated with other modules, such as telescope systems, without extra optical alignment due to the flexibility of the optical fiber. The filter features a narrow line width of 1 kHz and side mode suppression ratio of 65 dB. It provides a high-quality laser for lidar in terms of coherence length and signal-to-noise ratio, which is 20 dB higher than solid-state or microchip lasers. This concept is useful in material processing, medical equipment, biomedical instrumentation, and optical communications. The pulse-shaping fiber laser can be directly used in space, airborne, and satellite applications including lidar, remote sensing, illuminators, and phase-array antenna systems.
We demonstrate compression and shaping of few cycle pulses from a high average power ytterbium laser system. The pulses from a commercial 20 W, 100 kHz Yb laser system are spectrally broadened in two-stages using cascaded, gas-filled, stretched hollow-core fibers and then compressed and shaped in an acousto-optic modulator-based pulse-shaper. The pulse-shaper allows for compression, characterization, and shaping all in one system, producing ∼10 fs pulses with 30 μ J of energy.