Intense infrared lasers for strong-field science
Abstract
The advent of chirped-pulse amplification in the 1980s and femtosecond Ti:sapphire lasers in the 1990s enabled transformative advances in intense laser–matter interaction physics. Whereas most of experiments have been conducted in the limited near-infrared range of 0.8–1 μm, theories predict that many physical phenomena such as high harmonic generation in gases favor long laser wavelengths in terms of extending the high-energy cutoff. Significant progress has been made in developing few-cycle, carrier-envelope phase-stabilized, high-peak-power lasers in the 1.6–2 μm range that has laid the foundation for attosecond X ray sources in the water window. Even longer wavelength lasers are becoming available that are suitable to study light filamentation, high harmonic generation, and laser–plasma interaction in the relativistic regime. Long-wavelength lasers are suitable for sub-bandgap strong-field excitation of a wide range of solid materials, including semiconductors. In the strong-field limit, bulk crystals also produce high-order harmonics. In this review, we first introduce several important wavelength scaling laws in strong-field physics, then describe recent breakthroughs in short- (1.4–3 μm), mid- (3–8 μm), and long-wave (8–15 μm) infrared laser technology, and finally provide examples of strong-field applications of these novel lasers. Some of the broadband ultrafast infrared lasers will have profound effects on medicine, environmental protection, and national defense, because their wavelengths cover the water absorption band, the molecular fingerprint region, as well as the atmospheric infrared transparent window.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1364/aop.454797
Entities
People
- Alphonse Marra
- Chandrashekhar J. Joshi
- Chase Geiger
- Christian Heide
- David A Reis
- Fangjie Zhou
- Irina Petrushina
- Jiro Itatani
- Li Fang
- Lifeng Wang
- Mikhail N Polyanskiy
- Nobuhisa Ishii
- Prabhat Kumar
- Sergei Tochitsky
- Sergey Mirov
- Sergey Vasilyev
- Shambhu Ghimire
- Vladimir Fedorov
- Yi Wu
- Yuki Kobayashi
- Zenghu Chang
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Brookhaven National Laboratory
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- IPG Photonics
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
- National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- Office of Science
- Stony Brook University
- University of Alabama at Birmingham
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of Central Florida
- University of Tokyo