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D. Gauthier

Publications and source records attributed to D. Gauthier.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2021

Spectral control of high order harmonics through non-linear propagation effects

High harmonic generation (HHG) in crystals has revealed a wealth of perspectives such as all-optical mapping of the electronic band structure, ultrafast quantum information and the creation of novel all-solid-state attosecond sources. Significant efforts have been made to understand the microscopic aspects of HHG in crystals, whereas the macroscopic effects, such as non-linear propagation effects of the driving pulse inside the dense solid media and its impact on the HHG process is often overlooked. In this work, we study macroscopic effects by comparing two materials with distinct optical properties, silicon (Si) and zinc oxide (ZnO). By scanning the focal position of 85 fs, 2.123 $\mu$m wavelength pulses inside the crystals (Z-scan) we reveal spectral shifts in the generated harmonics. We interpret the overall blueshift of the emitted harmonic spectrum as an imprint of the driving field spectral modulation occurring during the propagation inside the crystal. This is supported with numerical simulations. This study demonstrates that through manipulation of the fundamental driving field through non-linear propagation effects, precise control of the emitted HHG spectrum in solids can be realised. This method could offer a robust way to tailor HHG spectra for a range of spectroscopic applications.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2018

Beyond the Limits of 1D Coherent Synchrotron Radiation

An understanding of collective effects is of fundamental importance for the design and optimisation of the performance of modern accelerators. In particular, the design of an accelerator with strict requirements on the beam quality, such as a free electron laser (FEL), is highly dependent on a correspondence between simulation, theory and experiments in order to correctly account for the effect of coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR), and other collective effects. A traditional approach in accelerator simulation codes is to utilise an analytic one-dimensional approximation to the CSR force. We present an extension of the 1D CSR theory in order to correctly account for the CSR force at the entrance and exit of a bending magnet. A limited range of applicability to this solution, in particular in bunches with a large transverse spot size or offset from the nominal axis, is recognised. More recently developed codes calculate the CSR effect in dispersive regions directly from the Lienard-Wiechert potentials, albeit with approximations to improve the computational time. A new module of the General Particle Tracer (GPT) code was developed for simulating the effects of CSR, and benchmarked against other codes. We experimentally demonstrate departure from the commonly used 1D CSR theory for more extreme bunch length compression scenarios at the FERMI FEL facility. Better agreement is found between experimental data and the codes which account for the transverse extent of the bunch, particularly in more extreme compression scenarios.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2017

Observation and Control of Laser-Enabled Auger Decay

Single photon laser enabled Auger decay (spLEAD) has been redicted theoretically [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 083004 (2013)] and here we report its first experimental observation in neon. Using coherent, bichromatic free-electron laser pulses, we have detected the process and coherently controlled the angular distribution of the emitted electrons by varying the phase difference between the two laser fields. Since spLEAD is highly sensitive to electron correlation, this is a promising method for probing both correlation and ultrafast hole migration in more complex systems.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2017

Coherent control with a short-wavelength Free Electron Laser

XUV and X-ray Free Electron Lasers (FELs) produce short wavelength pulses with high intensity, ultrashort duration, well-defined polarization and transverse coherence, and have been utilised for many experiments previously possible at long wavelengths only: multiphoton ionization, pumping an atomic laser, and four-wave mixing spectroscopy. However one important optical technique, coherent control, has not yet been demonstrated, because Self- Amplified Spontaneous Emission FELs have limited longitudinal coherence. Single-colour pulses from the FERMI seeded FEL are longitudinally coherent, and two-colour emission is predicted to be coherent. Here we demonstrate the phase correlation of two colours, and manipulate it to control an experiment. Light of wavelengths 63.0 and 31.5 nm ionized neon, and the asymmetry of the photoelectron angular distribution was controlled by adjusting the phase, with temporal resolution 3 attoseconds. This opens the door to new shortwavelength coherent control experiments with ultrahigh time resolution and chemical sensitivity.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2016

Tunable orbital angular momentum in high-harmonic generation

Optical vortices are currently one of the most intensively studied topics in optics. These light beams, which carry orbital angular momentum (OAM), have been successfully utilized in the visible and infrared in a wide variety of applications. Moving to shorter wavelengths may open up completely new research directions in the areas of optical physics and material characterization. Here, we report on the generation of extreme-ultraviolet optical vortices with femtosecond duration carrying a controllable amount of OAM. From a basic physics viewpoint, our results help to resolve key questions such as the conservation of angular momentum in highly-nonlinear light-matter interactions, and the disentanglement and independent control of the intrinsic and extrinsic components of the photon's angular momentum at short-wavelengths. The methods developed here will allow testing some of the recently proposed concepts such as OAM-induced dichroism, magnetic switching in organic molecules, and violation of dipolar selection rules in atoms.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2013

CITIUS: an IR-XUV light source for fundamental and applied ultrafast science

We present the main features of CITIUS, a new light source for ultrafast science, generating tunable, intense, femtosecond pulses in the spectral range from IR to XUV. The XUV pulses (about 10^5-10^8 photons/pulse in the range 14-80 eV) are produced by laser-induced high-order harmonic generation in gas. This radiation is monochromatized by a time-preserving monochromator, allowing also to work with high-resolution bandwidth selection. The tunable IR-UV pulses (10^{12}-10^{15} photons/pulse in the range 0.4-5.6 eV) are generated by an optical parametric amplifier, which is driven by a fraction of the same laser pulse that generates high order harmonics. The IR-UV and XUV pulses follow different optical paths and are eventually recombined on the sample for pump-probe experiments. The new light source will become the fulcrum of a new center located at the University of Nova Gorica, active in a wide range of scientific fields, including materials science, catalysis, biochemistry and magnetism. We also present the results of two pump-probe experiments: with the first one, we fully characterized the temporal duration of harmonic pulses in the time-preserving configuration; with the second one, we demonstrated the possibility of using CITIUS for studying of ultra-fast dynamics.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2013

Two-colour generation in a chirped seeded Free-Electron Laser

We present the experimental demonstration of a method for generating two spectrally and temporally separated pulses by an externally seeded, single-pass free-electron laser operating in the extreme-ultraviolet spectral range. Our results, collected on the FERMI@Elettra facility and confirmed by numerical simulations, demonstrate the possibility of controlling both the spectral and temporal features of the generated pulses. A free-electron laser operated in this mode becomes a suitable light source for jitter-free, two-colour pump-probe experiments.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2009

On large deviation regimes for random media models

The focus of this article is on the different behavior of large deviations of random subadditive functionals above the mean versus large deviations below the mean in two random media models. We consider the point-to-point first passage percolation time $a_n$ on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ and a last passage percolation time $Z_n$. For these functionals, we have $\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{a_n}{n}=ν$ and $\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{Z_n}{n}=μ$. Typically, the large deviations for such functionals exhibits a strong asymmetry, large deviations above the limiting value are radically different from large deviations below this quantity. We develop robust techniques to quantify and explain the differences.

math.PR↗