arXiv subjects

Ruxin Li

Publications and source records attributed to Ruxin Li.

70 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Laser guided ionic wind

We report on a method to experimentally generate ionic wind by coupling an external high voltage electric field with an intense femtosecond laser induced air plasma filament. The measured ionic wind velocity could be as strong as >4 m/s. It could be optimized by changing the applied electric field and the laser induced plasma channel. The experimental observation was qualitatively confirmed by a numerical simulation of spatial distribution of the electric field. This technique is robust and free from sharp metallic electrodes for coronas; it opens a way to optically generate ionic wind at a distance.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2017

2.6mJ/100Hz CEP stable near-single-cycle 4μm laser based on OPCPA and hollow-core-fiber compression

A carrier envelope phase stable near-single cycle mid-infrared laser based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification and hollow-core-fiber compression is demonstrated. 4 μm laser pulses with 11.8 mJ energy are delivered from a KTA based OPCPA with 100 Hz repetition rate, and compressed to be ~105 fs by a two-grating compressor with efficiency over 50%. Subsequently, the pulse spectrum is broadened by employing a krypton gas-filled hollow-core-fiber (HCF). Then, the pulse duration is further compressed to 21.5 fs through a CaF2 bulk material with energy of 2.6 mJ and stability of 0.9% RMS, which is about 1.6 cycle for 4 μm laser pulse. The near-single cycle 4 μm laser pulse CEP is passively stabilized with ~370 mrad based on a CEP stable 4 μm OPA injection.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2017

Pure Even Harmonic Generation from Oriented CO in Linearly Polarized Laser Fields

The first high harmonic spectrum, containing only the odd orders, was observed in experiments 30 years ago (1987). However, a spectrum containing pure even harmonics has never been observed. We investigate the generation of pure even harmonics from oriented CO molecules in linearly polarized laser fields employing the time-dependent density-functional theory. We find that the even harmonics, with no odd orders, are generated with the polarization perpendicular to the laser polarization, when the molecular axis of CO is perpendicular to the laser polarization. Generation of pure even harmonics reveals a type of dipole acceleration originating from the permanent dipole moment. This phenomenon exists in all system with permanent dipole moments, including bulk crystal and polyatomic molecules.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2017

Enhanced betatron radiation by steering a low-energy-spread electron beam in a deflected laser-driven plasma wiggler

Laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA) hold great potential to produce high-quality high-energy electron beams (e beams) and simultaneously bright x-ray sources via betatron radiation, which are very promising for pump-probe study in ultrafast science. However, in order to obtain a high-quality e beam, electron injection and acceleration should be carefully manipulated, where a large oscillation amplitude has to be avoided and thus the emitted x-ray yield is limited. Here, we report a new scheme to experimentally enhance betatron radiation significantly both in photon yield and photon energy by separating electron injection and acceleration from manipulation of the e-beam transverse oscillation in the wake via introducing a slanted thin plasma refraction slab. Particle-in-cell simulations indicate that the e-beam transverse oscillation amplitude can be increased by more than 10 folds, after being steered into the deflected laser-driven wakefield due to refraction at the slab's boundaries. Spectral broadening of the x-rays can be suppressed owing to the small variation in the peak energy of the low-energy-spread e beam in a plasma wiggler regime. We demonstrate that the high-quality e-beam generation, refracting and wiggling can act as a whole to realize the concurrence of monoenergetic e beam and bright x-rays in a compact LWFA.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2017

Laser undulator by laser ponderomotive force

The laser-plasma accelerator has attracted great interest for constituting an alternative in the production of the relativistic electron beams of high peak current. But the generated electron beam has poor monochrome and emittance, which make it difficult to produce high brightness radiation. Here we propose a compact flexible laser undulator based on ponderomotive force to constitute a millimeter-sized synchrotron radiation source of X-ray. We demonstrate that it can produce bright radiation with tens of keV energies. This opens a new path to compact synchrotron source with high power laser.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2017

Intense keV isolated attosecond pulse generation by orthogonally polarized multicycle midinfrared two-color laser field

We theoretically investigate the generation of intense keV attosecond pulses in an orthogonally polarized multicycle midinfrared two-color laser field. It is demonstrated that multiple continuum-like humps, which have a spectral width of about twenty orders of harmonics and an intensity of about one order higher than adjacent normal harmonic peaks, are generated under proper two-color delays, owing to the reduction of the number of electron-ion recollisions and suppression of inter-half-cycle interference effect of multiple electron trajectories when the long wavelength midinfrared driving field is used. Using the semiclassical trajectory model, we have revealed the two-dimensional manipulation of the electron-ion recollision process, which agrees well with the time frequency analysis. By filtering these humps, intense isolated attosecond pulses are directly generated without any phase compensation. Our proposal provides a simple technique to generate intense isolated attosecond pulses with various central photon energies covering the multi-keV spectral regime by using multicycle driving pulses with high pump energy in experiment.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Compact transient-grating self-referenced spectral interferometry for sub-nanojoule femtosecond pulses characterization

The self-referenced spectral interferometry (SRSI) technique, which is usually used for microjoule-level femtosecond pulses characterization, is improved to characterize weak femtosecond pulses with nanojoule based on the transient-grating effect. Both femtosecond pulses from an amplifier with 3 nJ per pulse at 1 kHz repetition rates and femtosecond pulses from an oscillator with less than 0.5 nJ per pulse at 84 MHz repetition rates are successfully characterized. Furthermore, through a special design, the optical setup of the device is even smaller than a palm which will makes it simple and convenient during the application. These improvements extend the application of SRSI technique to the characterization of femtosecond pulses in a broad range. Not only pulses from an amplifier but also pulses from an oscillator or weak pulses used in ultrafast spectroscopy can be monitored with this SRSI method right now.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Revealing plasma oscillation in THz spectrum from laser plasma of molecular jet

Contribution of plasma oscillation to the broadband terahertz emission is revealed by interacting two-color laser pulses with a supersonic jet of nitrogen molecules. Temporal and spectral shifts of THz waves are observed as the plasma density varies. The former owes to the changing refractive index of the THz waves, and the latter correlates to the varying plasma frequency. Simulation of considering photocurrents, plasma oscillation and decaying plasma density explains the broadband THz spectrum and the varying THz spectrum. Plasma oscillation only contributes to THz waves at low plasma density owing to negligible plasma absorption. At the longer medium or higher density, the combining effects of plasma oscillation and absorption results in the observed low-frequency broadband THz spectra.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Snowfall induced by corona discharge

We demonstrated for the first time the condensation and precipitation (or snowfall) induced by a corona discharge inside a cloud chamber. Ionic wind was found to have played a more significant role than ions as extra Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN). 2.25 g of net snow enhancement was measured after applying a 30 kV corona discharge for 25 min. In comparison with another newly emerging femtosecond laser filamentation method, the snow precipitation induced by the corona discharge has about 4 orders of magnitude higher wall-plug efficiency under similar conditions.

physics.gen-ph↗

arXiv2016

Electron motion enhanced high harmonic generation in xenon clusters

Atomic clusters presents an isolated system that models the bulk materials whose mechanism of HHG remains uncertain, and a promising medium to produce HHG beyond the limited conversion efficiency for gaseous atoms. Here we reveal that the oscillation of collective electron motion within clusters develops after the interaction of intense laser fields, and it significantly enhances the harmonic dipole and increases the quantum phase of the harmonics. Experimentally, the phase matching conditions of HHG from nanometer xenon clusters and atoms are distinguished, which confirms the enhanced internal field that was proposed theoretically a decade ago. The separation of HHG from atoms and clusters allows the determination of the amplitude of the HHG for clusters to be 5 orders higher, corresponding to 4 times higher conversion efficiency for atomic response. The finding provides an insight on the HHG mechanism of bulk materials and a means by which an efficient coherent X-ray source can be developed.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

MeV Argon ion beam generation with narrow energy spread

Laser driven particle acceleration has shown remarkable progresses in generating multi-GeV electron bunches and 10s of MeV ion beams based on high-power laser facilities. Intense laser pulse offers the acceleration field of 1012 Volt per meter, several orders of magnitude larger than that in conventional accelerators, enabling compact devices. Here we report that a highly-collimated argon ion beam with narrow energy spread is produced by irradiating a 45-fs fully-relativistic laser pulse onto an argon cluster target. The highly-charged (Argon ion with charge state of 16+) heavy ion beam has a minimum absolute energy spread of 0.19 MeV per nucleon at the energy peak of 0.39 MeV per nucleon. we identify a novel scheme from particle-in-cell simulations that greatly reduces the beam energy spread. The laser-driven intense plasma wakefield has a strong modulation on the ion beam in a way that the low energy part is cut off. The pre-accelerated argon ion beam from Coulomb explosion thus becomes more mono-energetic and collimated.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2015

Direct evidences for inner-shell electron-excitation by laser induced electron recollision

Extreme ultraviolet (XUV) attosecond pulses, generated by a process known as laser-induced electron recollision, are a key ingredient for attosecond metrology, providing a tool to precisely initiate and probe sub-femtosecond dynamics in the microcosms of atoms, molecules and solids[1]. However, with the current technology, extending attosecond metrology to scrutinize the dynamics of the inner-shell electrons is a challenge, that is because of the lower efficiency in generating the required soft x-ray \hbarω>300 eV attosecond bursts and the lower absorption cross-sections in this spectral range. A way around this problem is to use the recolliding electron to directly initiate the desired inner-shell process, instead of using the currently low flux x-ray attosecond sources.Such an excitation process occurs in a sub-femtosecond timescale, and may provide the necessary "pump" step in a pump-probe experiment[2]. Here we used a few cycle infrared λ_{0}~1800nm source[3] and observed direct evidences for inner-shell excitations through the laser-induced electron recollision process. It is the first step toward time-resolved core-hole studies in the keV energy range with sub-femtosecond time resolution.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2015

Direct observation of laser guided corona discharges

Laser based lightning control holds a promising way to solve the problem of the long standing disaster of lightning strikes. But it is a challenging project due to insufficient understanding of the interaction between laser plasma channel and high voltage electric filed. In this work, a direct observation of laser guided corona discharge is reported. The high voltage corona discharge can be guided along laser plasma filament, and enhanced through the interaction with laser filaments. The fluorescence lifetime of laser filament guided corona discharge was measured to be several microseconds, which is 3 orders of magnitude longer than the fluorescence lifetime of laser filaments. This could be advantageous towards laser assisted leader development in the atmosphere.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Initial carrier-envelope phase of few-cycle pulses determined by THz emission from air plasma

The evolution of THz waveform generated in air plasma provides a sensitive probe to the variation of the carrier envelope phase (CEP) of propagating intense few-cycle pulses. Our experimental observation and calculation reveal that the number and positions of the inversion of THz waveform are dependent on the initial CEP, which is near 0.5π constantly under varied input pulse energies when two inversions of THz waveform in air plasma become one. This provides a method of measuring the initial CEP in an accuracy that is only limited by the stability of the driving few-cycle pulses.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2012

Waveform-Controlled Terahertz Radiation from the Air Filament Produced by Few-Cycle Laser Pulses

Waveform-controlled Terahertz (THz) radiation is of great importance due to its potential application in THz sensing and coherent control of quantum systems. We demonstrated a novel scheme to generate waveform-controlled THz radiation from air plasma produced when carrier-envelope-phase (CEP) stabilized few-cycle laser pulses undergo filamentation in ambient air. We launched CEP-stabilized 10 fs-long (~ 1.7 optical cycles) laser pulses at 1.8 μm into air and found that the generated THz waveform can be controlled by varying the filament length and the CEP of driving laser pulses. Calculations using the photocurrent model and including the propagation effects well reproduce the experimental results, and the origins of various phase shifts in the filament are elucidated.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2004

Creation of atomic coherent superpositions in manifolds of levels without multi-photon resonance

We propose a scheme for creating atomic coherent superpositions via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in a Lambda-type system where the final state has twofold levels. In the employ of a control field, the presence of double dark states leads to two arbitrary coherent superposition states with equal amplitude but inverse relative phase without the condition of multi-photon resonance. In particular, two orthogonal maximal coherent superposition states are created when the control field is resonant with the transition of the twofold levels. This scheme can also be extended to manifold Lambda-type systems.

quant-ph↗