arXiv subjects

Kenan Qu

Publications and source records attributed to Kenan Qu.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

On Seminal HEDP Research Opportunities Enabled by Colocating Multi-Petawatt Laser with High-Density Electron Beams

The scientific community is currently witnessing an expensive and worldwide race to achieve the highest possible light intensity. Within the next decade this effort is expected to reach nearly $10^{24}\,\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{cm^2}$ in the lab frame by focusing of 100 PW, near-infrared lasers. A major driving force behind this effort is the possibility to study strong-field vacuum breakdown and an accompanying electron-positron pair plasma via a quantum electrodynamic (QED) cascade [Edwin Cartlidge, "The light fantastic", Science 359, 382 (2018)]. Whereas Europe is focusing on all-optical 10 PW-class laser facilities (e.g., Apollon and ELI), China is already planning on co-locating a 100 PW laser system with a 25 keV superconducting XFEL and thus implicitly also a high-quality electron beam [Station of Extreme Light (SEL) at the Shanghai Superintense-Ultrafast Lasers Facility (SULF)]. This white paper elucidates the seminal scientific opportunities facilitated by colliding dense, multi-GeV electron beams with multi-PW optical laser pulses. Such a multi-beam facility would enable the experimental exploration of extreme HEDP environments by generating electron-positron pair plasmas with unprecedented densities and temperatures, where the interplay between strong-field quantum and collective plasma effects becomes decisive.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2019

Creating localized plasma wave by ionization of doped semiconductors

Localized plasma waves can be generated by suddenly ionizing extrinsic semiconductors with spatially periodic dopant densities. The built-in electrostatic potentials at the metallurgical junctions, combined with electron density ripples, offer the exact initial condition for exciting long-lasting plasma waves upon ionization. This method can create plasma waves with a frequency between a few terahertz to sub-petahertz without substantial damping. The lingering plasma waves can seed backward Raman amplification in a wide range of resonance frequencies up to the extreme ultraviolet regime. Chirped wavevectors and curved wavefronts allow focusing the amplified beam in both longitudinal and transverse dimensions. The main limitation to this method appears to be obtaining sufficiently low plasma density from solid-state materials to avoid collisional damping.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2019

Laser frequency upconversion in plasmas with finite ionization rates

Laser frequency can be upconverted in a plasma undergoing ionization. For finite ionization rates, the laser pulse energy is partitioned into a pair of counter-propagating waves and static transverse currents. The wave amplitudes are determined by the ionization rates and the input pulse duration. The strongest output waves can be obtained when the plasma is fully ionized in a time that is shorter than the pulse duration. The static transverse current can induce a static magnetic field with instant ionization, but it dissipates as heat if the ionization time is longer than a few laser periods. This picture comports with experimental data, providing a description of both laser frequency upconverters as well as other laser-plasma interaction with evolving plasma densities.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2018

Theory of electromagnetic wave frequency upconversion in dynamic media

Frequency upconversion of an electromagnetic wave can occur in ionized plasma with decreasing electric permittivity and in split-ring resonator-structure metamaterials with decreasing magnetic permeability. We develop a general theory to describe the evolution of the wave frequency, amplitude, and energy density in homogeneous media with a temporally decreasing refractive index. We find that upconversion of the wave frequency is necessarily accompanied by partitioning of the wave energy into low-frequency modes, which sets an upper limit on the energy conversion efficiency. The efficiency limits are obtained for both varying permittivity and varying permeability.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2017

Plasma q-plate for generation and manipulation of intense optical vortices

An optical vortex is a light wave with a twisting wavefront around its propagation axis and null intensity in the beam center. Its unique spatial structure of field lends itself to a broad range of applications, including optical communication, quantum information, superresolution microscopy, and multi-dimensional manipulation of particles. However, accessible intensity of optical vortices have been limited to material ionization threshold. This limitation might be removed by using the plasma medium. Here we propose the design of suitably magnetized plasmas which, functioning as a q-plate, leads to a direct convertion from a high-intensity Gaussian beam into a twisted beam. A circularly polarized laser beam in the plasma accumulates an azimuthal-angle-dependent phase shift and hence forms a twisting wavefront. Our three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate extremely high power conversion efficiency. The plasma q-plate can work in a large range of frequencies spanning from terahertz to the optical domain.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2017

Laser Pulse Sharpening with Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in Plasma

We propose a laser-controlled plasma shutter technique to generate sharp laser pulses using a process analogous to electromagnetically-induced transparency in atoms. The shutter is controlled by a laser with moderately strong intensity, which induces a transparency window below the cutoff frequency, and hence enables propagation of a low frequency laser pulse. Numerical simulations demonstrate it is possible to generate a sharp pulse wavefront (sub-ps) using two broad pulses in high density plasma. The technique can work in a regime that is not accessible by plasma mirrors when the pulse pedestals are stronger than the ionization intensity.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2017

Plasma Wave Seed for Raman Amplifiers

It is proposed to replace the traditional counterpropagating laser seed in backward Raman amplifiers with a plasma wave seed. In the linear regime, namely, for a constant pump amplitude, a plasma wave seed may be found by construction that strictly produces the same output pulse as does a counterpropagating laser seed. In the nonlinear regime, or pump-depletion regime, the plasma-wave-initiated output pulse can be shown numerically to approach the same self-similar attractor solution for the corresponding laser seed. In addition, chirping the plasma wave wavelength can produce the same beneficial effects as chirping the seed wave frequency. This methodology is attractive because it avoids issues in preparing and synchronizing a frequency-shifted laser seed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2016

Generating quadrature squeezed light with dissipative optomechanical coupling

The recent demonstration of cooling of a macroscopic silicon nitride membrane based on dissipative coupling makes dissipatively coupled optomechanical systems as promising candidates for squeezing. We theoretically show that such a system in a cavity on resonance can yield good squeezing which is comparable to that produced by dispersive coupling. We also report the squeezing resulting from the combined effects of dispersive and dissipative couplings and thus the device can be operated in one regime or the other. We derive the maximal frequency and quadrature angles to observe squeezing for given optomechanical coupling strengths. We also discuss the effects of temperature on squeezing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Optomechanical Ramsey Interferometry

We adopt the Ramsey's method of separated oscillatory fields to study coherences of the mechanical system in an optomechanical resonator. The high resolution Ramsey fringes are observed in the emission optical field, when two pulses separated in time are applied. We develop a theory to describe the transient optomechanical behavior underlying the Ramsey fringes. We also perform the experimental demonstration using a silica microresonator. The method is versatile and can be adopted to different types of mechanical resonators, electromechanical resonators.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Strong squeezing via phonon mediated spontaneous generation of photon pairs

We propose a scheme generating robust squeezed light by using double cavity optomechanical system driven by a blue detuned laser in one cavity and by a red detuned laser in the other. This double cavity system is shown to mimic effectively an interaction that is similar to the one for the downconverter, which is known to be a source of strong squeezing for the light fields. There are however distinctions as the phonons, which lead to such an interaction, can contribute to the quantum noise. We show that the squeezing of the output fields in the order of $10$dB can be achieved even at the mirror temperature at the order of $10$mK.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Ramsey spectroscopy with squeezed light

Traditional Ramsey spectroscopy has the frequency resolution $2π/T$, where $T$ is the time separation between two light fields. Using squeezed states and two-atom excitation joint detection, we present a new scheme achieving a higher resolution $π/T$. We use two mode squeezed light which exhibits strong entanglement.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Fano resonances and their control in optomechanics

The Fano line profiles, originally discovered in the context of photoionization, have been found to occur in a large class of systems like resonators, metamaterials, plasmonics. We demonstrate the existence of such resonances in cavity optomechanics by identifying the interfering contributions to the fields generated at antiStokes and Stokes frequencies. Unlike the atomic systems, the optomechanical systems provide great flexibility as the width of the resonance is controlled by the coupling field. We further show how the double cavities coupled by a single optomechanical mirror can lead to the splitting of the Fano resonance and how the second cavity can be used to tune the Fano resonances. The Fano resonances are quite sensitive to the decay parameters associated with cavities and the mechanical mirror. Such resonances can be studied by both pump probe experiments as well as via the spectrum of the quantum fluctuations in the output fields.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Spontaneous Generation of Photons in Transmission of Quantum Fields in PT Symmetric Optical Systems

We develop a rigorous mathematically consistent description of PT symmetric optical systems by using second quantization. We demonstrate the possibility of significant spontaneous generation of photons in PT symmetric systems. Further we show the emergence of Hanbury-Brown Twiss (HBT) correlations in spontaneous generation. We show that the spontaneous generation determines decisively the nonclassical nature of fields in PT symmetric systems. Our work can be applied to other systems like plasmonic structure where losses are compensated by gain mechanisms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Phonon mediated electromagnetically induced absorption in hybrid opto-electro mechanical systems

We predict the existence of the electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) in the double cavity configurations of the hybrid opto-electro mechanical systems (OEMS). We discuss the origin of the EIA in OEMS which exhibit the existence of an absorption peak within the transparency window. We provide analytical results for the width and the height of the EIA peak. The combination of the EIT and EIA is especially useful for photon switching applications. The EIA that we discuss is different from the one originally discovered by Lezama et al in atomic systems and can be understood in terms of the dynamics of three coupled oscillators (rather than two) under different conditions on the relaxation parameters. The EIA we report can also be realized in metamaterials and plasmonic structures.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Optical memories and transduction of fields in double cavity optomechanical systems

Using electromagnetically induced transparency we show how the opto-mechanical systems can be used both as memory elements as well as for the transduction of optical fields. We use a double cavity optomechanical system which facilitates such applications. By tuning the frequency of the second cavity one can produce output fields at a variety of frequencies. We present analytical results for the steady state behavior which is controlled by the power and the detuning of the field driving the second cavity.

quant-ph↗