We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally the difference between the band compression mechanisms of plasmonic gratings and plasmonic heterogratings.The plasmonic grating can pick out a fixed polarization band-width with changing the incidence angle,while the plasmonic heterograting composed of two different nanograt-ings can pick out a tunable bandwidth with changing the incidence angle and the period ratio of two gratings.The range of the plasmonic resonances of the heterograting is about 30%wider than that of a conventional grating.Thus,the plasmonic heterograting can work efficiently in a wider wavelength range.Moreover,high polarization extinction ratio is achieved in these plasmonic devices.This gives more insights into the mechanisms in plasmonic filters and is helpful to promote the actual applications.
The propagation of a plasma shock wave generated from an Al target surface ablated by a nanosecond Nd:YAG laser operating at 355 nm in air is investigated at the different focusing positions of the laser beam by using a time-resolved shadowgraph imaging technique. The results show that in the case of a target surface set at the off-focus position, the condition of the focal point behind or in front of the target surface greatly influences the evolution of an Al plasma shock wave, and an ionization channel forms in the case of the focal point set in front of the target surface. Moreover, it is found that the shadowgraph with the evolution time around 100 ns shows that a protrusion appears at the front tip of the shock wave if the focal point is at the target surface. In addition, the calculated results of the expanding velocity of the shock wave front, the mass density, and pressure just behind the shock wave front are presented based on the shadowgraphs.
For the next-generation beyond extreme ultraviolet lithography(EUVL) sources, gadolinium(Gd) plasma with emission wavelength at 6.7 nm seems to be the leading candidate. Similar to the Sn target 13.5 nm light source, ion debris mitigation is one of the most important tasks in the laser-produced Gd plasma EUV source development. In this paper,a dual-laser-pulse scheme, which uses a low energy pulse to produce a pre-plasma and a main pulse after a time delay to shoot the pre-plasma, is employed to mitigate the energetic ion generation from the source. Optimal conditions(such as pre-pulse energy and wavelength, and the time delay between the pre-pulse and the main pulse for mitigating the ion energy) are experimentally obtained, and with the optimal conditions, the peak of the ion energy is found to be reduced to1/18 of that of a single laser pulse case. Moreover, the combined effect by applying ambient gas to the dual-pulse scheme for ion debris mitigation is demonstrated, and the result shows that the yield of Gd ions is further reduced to around 1/9 of the value for the case with dual laser pulses.
Metals in nature exhibit a mediocre wettability and a high optical reflectance from the visible region to the infrared. This Letter reports that, by formation of nano- and microscale structures via a simple raster scanning of a focused femtosecond laser pulse without any further treatment, structured aluminum and nickel surfaces exhibit combined features of superhydrophobicity with a contact angle of 155.5°, and a high optical absorption with a reflectivity of several percent over a broad spectral range(0.2–2.5 μm). Thus, a multifunctional structured metal surface that integrates superhydrophobicity and a high broadband absorptivity has been easily realized by one-step femtosecond laser processing.
An intense supercontinuum(SC) in the near-ultraviolet range is generated from filamentation by focusing a 400-nm laser into fused silica with a microlens array(MLA). The spectrum of the SC is shown to be sensitive to the distance between the MLA and fused silica. In our optimal conditions, the near-ultraviolet SC can cover a range of 350-600 nm,where a bandwidth of approximately 55 nm above the 1μJ/nm spectral energy density and 20 nm bandwidth with tens ofμJ/nm are achieved. In addition, the energy conversion efficiency of the 400 nm laser for SC generation is further analyzed.A maximum conversion efficiency of 66% is obtained when the entrance face of fused silica is set around the focus of the MLA.
In this paper, we derive the analytical expression for the multipole expansion coefficients of scattering and interior fields of a graphene-coated dielectric particle under the illumination of an arbitrary optical beam. By using this arbitrary beam theory, we systematically investigate the optical forces exerted on the graphene-coated particle by a focused Gaussian beam. Via tuning the chemical potential of the graphene, the optical force spectra could be modulated accordingly at resonant excitation. The hybridized whispering gallery mode of the electromagnetic field inside the graphene-coated polystyrene particle is more intensively localized than the pure polystyrene particle, which leads to a weakened morphology-dependent resonance in the optical forces. These investigations could open new perspectives for dynamic engineering of optical manipulations in optical tweezers applications.
We demonstrate the first use of single layer graphene for compressing self-Q-switching pulses in semiconductor disk lasers. The gain region of the semiconductor disk laser used InGaAs quantum wells with a central wavelength of 1030 nm.Due to self saturable absorption of the quantum wells, the disk laser emitted at the self-Q-switching state with a pulse width of 13 μs. By introducing the single layer graphene as a saturable absorber into the V-shaped laser cavity, the pulse width of the self-pulse was compressed to 2 μs with a lower pump power of 300 mW. As the pump power was increased, multiple pulses with the pulse width of 1.8 μs appeared. The compression factor was about 7.2.
We present a nonlinear ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier based on enhanced nonlinear effects that can produce a flat broadband spectrum ranging from 1050–1225 nm with a maximum average output power of 7.8 W at 14 W pump power.Its repetition rate is 89 MHz. Using a pair of gratings and two knife edges as a filter, wavelength tunable picosecond pulses of tens to hundreds of milliwatts can be obtained in the broadband spectrum range. The output power, pulse width, and spectrum(center wavelength and linewidth) are adjusted by tuning the distance of the grating pair and/or the knife edges.Fixing the distance between the two gratings at 15 mm and keeping the output spectrum linewidth at approximately 20 nm,the shortest pulse width obtained is less than 1 ps centered at 1080 nm. The longest wavelength of the short pulses is around1200 nm, and its output power and pulse width are 40 m W and 5.79 ps, respectively. The generation of a flat broadband spectrum is also discussed in this paper.
We present a passively Q-switched Yb:KGW laser based on a transmission-type saturable absorber of topological insulator:Bi_2Se_3.The saturable absorber is prepared on a 0.17-mm glass substrate and can translate intra-cavity for best performance nearly without influence on the laser mode.At a maximum pump power of 13.7 W,the central wavelength,pulse duration,repetition rate,and pulse energy of Q-switched pulse are 1043 nm,1.5 μs,175.4 kHz,6.39 μJ,respectively.The maximum output power is 1.12 W.To our knowledge,this is the highest average output power from passively Qswitched lasers with topological insulator saturable absorbers.
