Nowadays the development of novel particle accelerators is a hot topic for both experimental and theoretical sciences. In the CERN-AWAKE experiment electrons are accelerated in a cold rubidium plasma, generated by a short, intense laser pulse. We describe the corresponding photoionisation process with ab initio quantum mechanical calculations. In this paper we primarily investigate how the frequency chirping of the applied laser pulse influences the photoionisation. Secondarily we also study how the results of the numerical simulations depend on the shape of the envelope of the laser pulse. Based on our results, we give a recommendation to fine-tune the physical parameters of the applied laser pulse in order to improve the homogeneity of the rubidium plasma.
The photoionisation of rubidium in strong infra-red laser fields based on ab initio calculations was investigated. The bound and the continuum states are described with Slater orbitals and Coulomb wave packets, respectively. The bound state spectra were calculated with the variational method and we found it reproduced the experimental data within a few percent accuracy. Using the similar approach, ionisation of Rb was also successfully investigated. The effects of the shape and the parameters of the pulse to the photoionisation probabilities and the energy spectrum of the ionised electron are …
Ionization of atoms and molecules in strong laser fields is a fundamental process in many fields of research, especially in the emerging field of attosecond science. So far, demonstrably accurate data have only been acquired for atomic hydrogen (H), a species that is accessible to few investigators. Here we present measurements of the ionization yield for argon, krypton, and xenon with percentlevel accuracy, calibrated using H, in a laser regime widely used in attosecond science. We derive a transferrable calibration standard for laser peak intensity, accurate to 1.3%, that is based on a simpl…
We present a novel technique for producing pulses of laser light whose frequency is arbitrarily chirped. The output from a diode laser is sent through a fiber-optical delay line containing a fiber-based electro-optical phase modulator. Upon emerging from the fiber, the phase-modulated pulse is used to injection-lock the laser and the process is repeated. Large phase modulations are realized by multiple passes through the loop while the high optical power is maintained by self-injection-locking after each pass. Arbitrary chirps are produced by driving the modulator with an arbitrary waveform ge…
We present here an analysis of the influence of the frequency dependence of the Raman laser light shifts on the phase of a Raman-type atom gravimeter. Frequency chirps are applied to the Raman lasers in order to compensate gravity and ensure the resonance of the Raman pulses during the interferometer. We show that the change in the Raman light shift when this chirp is applied only to one of the two Raman lasers is enough to bias the gravity measurement by a fraction of $μ$Gal ($1~μ$Gal~=~$10^{-8}$~m/s$^2$). We also show that this effect is not compensated when averaging over the two directions…
Via a non-perturbative method we study the population dynamics and photoelectron spectra of Cs atoms subject to intense chirped laser pulses, with gaussian beams. We include above threshold ionization spectral peaks. The frequency of the laser is near resonance with the 6s-7p transition. Dominant couplings are included exactly, weaker ones accounted for perturbatively. We calculate the relevant transition matrix elements, including spin-orbit coupling. The pulse is taken to be a hyperbolic secant in time and the chirping a hyperbolic tangent. This choice allows the equations of motions for the…
We present a theoretical study of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) driven by ultrashort optical pulses with different kind of chirps. The goal of the present work is perform a detailed study to clarify the relevant parameters in the chirped pulses to achieve a noticeable cut-off extensions in HHG. These chirped pulses are generated using both linear and nonlinear dispersive media.The description of the origin of the physical mechanisms responsible of this extension is, however, not usually reported with enough detail in the literature. The study of the behaviour of the harmonic cut-off wit…
We have studied the effects of chirped femtosecond laser pulses on the formation of ultracold molecules in a Rb magneto-optical trap. We have found that application of chirped femtosecond pulses suppressed the formation of 85Rb-2 and 87Rb-2 lowest triplet state molecules in contrast to comparable non-chirped pulses, cw illumination, and background formation rates. Variation of the amount of chirp indicated that this suppression is coherent in nature, suggesting that coherent control is likely to be useful for manipulating the dynamics of ultracold quantum molecular gases.
We demonstrate and characterize that a carrier-envelope-phase (CEP)-controlled ultrashortchirped field is an efficient and robust mechanism to modify the dissociation dynamics of molecularhydrogen. Different dissociation pathways are collectively induced and their interference contributeto the kinetic energy release spectra. Chirping is able to efficiently manipulate the interferencesof different dissociation pathways. We demonstrate a linear relationship between chirp and CEP-dependence, dissociation as well as directional electron localization.
We propose and demonstrate a robust control scheme by ultrafast nonadiabatic chirped laser pulse, designed for targeting coherent superpositions of two-level systems. Robustness against power fluctuation is proved by our numerical study and a proof-of-principle experiment performed with femtosecond laser interaction on cold atoms. They exhibit for the final driven dynamics a cusp on the Bloch sphere, corresponding to a zero curvature of fidelity. This solution is particularly simple and thus applicable to a wide range of potential applications.
We present a method of producing single attosecond pulses by high-order harmonic generation with multi-cycle nonlinear chirped driver laser pulses. The symmetry of the laser feld in several optical cycles near the pulse center is dramatically broken, and then the photons which cover a much broad spectrum burst almost only in one optical cycle. So an ultra-broad continuum spectrum appears in the high order harmonic spectrum, from which an isolated sub-50 attosecond pulse could be obtained. The results are almost independent of the length and chirp form of the driver laser pulse.
We investigate the electron quantum path interference effects during high harmonic generation in atomic gas medium driven by ultrashort chirped laser pulses. To achieve that, we identify and vary the different experimentally relevant control parameters of such a driving laser pulse influencing the high harmonic spectra. Specifically, the impact of the pulse duration, peak intensity and instantaneous frequency is studied in a self-consistent manner based on Lewenstein formalism. Simulations involving macroscopic propagation effects are also considered. The study aims to reveal the microscopic b…
Photoassociation of ultracold atoms induced by chirped picosecond pulses is analyzed in a non-perturbative treatment by following the wavepackets dynamics on the ground and excited surfaces. The initial state is described by a Boltzmann distribution of continuum scattering states. The chosen example is photoassociation of cesium atoms at temperature T=54 $μK$ from the $a^3 Σ_u^+(6s,6s)$ continuum to bound levels in the external well of the $0_g^-(6s+6p_{3/2})$ potential. We study how the modification of the pulse characteristics (carrier frequency, duration, linear chirp rate and intensity) ca…
We measure spectrally and spatially resolved high-order harmonics generated in argon using chirped multi-cycle laser pulses. Using a stable, high-repetition rate laser we observe detailed interference structures in the far-field. The structures are of two kinds; off-axis interference from the long trajectory only and on-axis interference including the short and long trajectories. The former is readily visible in the far-field spectrum, modulating both the spectral and spatial profile. To access the latter, we vary the chirp of the fundamental, imparting different phases on the different trajec…
We report a study on the optical dipole force in a ladder like three level atomic systems in the context of coherent population transfer with the chirped few-cycle-pulse laser fields. The phenomenon of coherent population transfer is investigated by numerically solving the appropriate density matrix equations beyond the rotating wave approximation. On the other hand, optical dipole force is calculated by numerically solving the force equation and density matrix equations self-consistently. By analysing the centre-of-mass motion, it is shown that the optical dipole force with chirped pulses may…
Arbitrary rotation of a qubit can be performed with a three-pulse sequence; for example, ZYZ rotations. However, this requires precise control of the relative phase and timing between the pulses, making it technically challenging in optical implementation in a short time scale. Here we show any ZYZ rotations can be implemented with a single laser-pulse, that is {\it a chirped pulse with a temporal hole}. The hole of this shaped pulse induces a non-adiabatic interaction in the middle of the adiabatic evolution of the chirped pulse, converting the central part of an otherwise simple Z-rotation t…
We present a joint experimental and theoretical study on strong-field photo-ionization of sodium atoms using chirped femtosecond laser pulses. By tuning the chirp parameter, selectivity among the population in the highly excited states 5p, 6p, 7p and 5f, 6f is achieved. Different excitation pathways enabling control are identified by simultaneous ionization and measurement of photoelectron angular distributions employing the velocity map imaging technique. Free electron wave packets at an energy of around 1 eV are observed. These photoelectrons originate from two channels. The predominant 2+1+…
This theoretical paper presents numerical calculations for photoassociation of ultracold cesium atoms with a chirped laser pulse and detailed analysis of the results. In contrast with earlier work, the initial state is represented by a stationary continuum wavefunction. In the chosen example, it is shown that an important population transfer is achieved to $\approx 15$ vibrational levels in the vicinity of the v=98 bound level in the external well of the $0_g^-(6s+6p_{3/2})$ potential. Such levels lie in the energy range swept by the instantaneous frequency of the pulse, thus defining a ``phot…
The chirped-pulse interaction in the adiabatic coupling regime induces cyclic permutations of the energy states of a three-level system in the $V$-type configuration, which process is known as the three-level chirped rapid adiabatic passage. Here we show that a spectral hole in a chirped pulse can turn on and off one of the two adiabatic crossing points of this process, reducing the system to an effective two-level system. The given hybrid adiabatic-nonadiabatic transition results in selective excitation of the three-level system, controlled by the laser intensity and spectral position of the …
The first step in the coherent control of a photoinduced binary reaction is bond making or photoassociation. We have recently demonstrated coherent control of bond making in multi-photon femtosecond photoassociation of hot magnesium atoms, using linearly chirped pulses [Levin et al., arXiv:1411.1542]. The detected yield of photoassociated magnesium dimers was enhanced by positively chirped pulses which is explained theoretically by a combination of purification and chirp-dependent Raman transitions. The yield could be further enhanced by pulse optimization resulting in pulses with an effective…
We report and propose a simple scheme to achieve the ultrafast and selective population transfer in four-level atoms by utilizing a single frequency chirped few-cycle pulse. It is demonstrated that the almost complete population may be transferred to the preselected state of atoms just by manipulating the so called chirp offset parameter. The robustness of the scheme against the variation of laser pulse parameters is also investigated. The proposed scheme may also be useful for the selective population transfer in molecules.
We report and propose a simple scheme to achieve efficient and fast coherent population transfer (CPT) by utilizing either a nonlinearly chirped Gaussian shaped few-cycle laser pulse or an unchirped sinc-shaped few-cycle laser pulse. The proposed scheme is shown to be fairly robust against the variation of the laser parameters such as temporal pulse width, chirp rates, carrier envelope phases and Rabi frequencies. We find that compared to the so-called stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) technique, our scheme for complete population transfer with few-cycle Gaussian shaped laser pulses …
Scattering of ultraintense short laser pulses off relativistic electrons allows one to generate a large number of X- or $γ$-ray photons with the expense of the spectral width---temporal pulsing of the laser inevitable leads to considerable spectral broadening. In this Letter, we describe a simple method to generate optimized laser pulses that compensate the nonlinear spectrum broadening, and can be thought of as a superposition of two oppositely linearly chirped pulses delayed with respect to each other. We develop a simple analytical model that allow us to predict the optimal parameters of su…
We discuss the production of ultracold molecules in their electronic ground state by photoassociation employing electronically excited states with ion-pair character and strong spin-orbit interaction. A short photoassociation laser pulse drives a non-resonant three-photon transition for alkali atoms colliding in their lowest triplet state. The excited state wave packet is transferred to the ground electronic state by a second laser pulse, driving a resonant two-photon transition. After analyzing the transition matrix elements governing the stabilization step, we discuss the efficiency of popul…
