Related papers: A large aperture reflective wave-plate for high-in…
With increasing laser peak power, the generation and manipulation of high-power laser pulses becomes a growing challenge for conventional solid-state optics due to their limited damage threshold. As a result, plasma-based optical components…
Linear birefringence, as implemented in wave plates, is a natural way to control the state of polarization of light. We report on a general method for designing miniature planar wave plates using surface plasmons. The resonant optical…
The quasi-optical modulation of linear polarization at millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths can be achieved by using rotating half wave plates (HWPs) in front of polarization sensitive detectors. Large operational bandwidths are…
Exceptional pulse contrast can be critical for ultraintense laser experiments, particularly when using solid density targets, and their use is becoming widespread. However, current plasma mirror technology is becoming inadequate for the new…
The efficient generation of intense X-rays and $\gamma$-radiation is studied. The scheme is based on the relativistic mirror concept, {\it i.e.}, a flying thin plasma slab interacts with a counterpropagating laser pulse, reflecting part of…
Numerous applications in the extreme field science are possible with circularly polarized high peak power ultrashort pulses. Commonly used quarter wave plates are not applicable here, while multi-mirror schemes are very complicated. We…
We report an experimental-computational study of the optical properties of plasma mirrors (PMs) at the incident laser frequency when irradiated directly at relativistic intensity (1e18 < I_0 < 1e19 W/cm^2) by near-normally incident (4…
Plasma-based optics have emerged as a powerful platform for manipulating and amplifying ultra-intense laser pulses. However, the inherently nonlinear and dynamic nature of plasma leads to significant spatial, spectral, and temporal…
A thin layer of overdense plasma is created when an electromagnetic pulse interacts with a rapidly ionizing thin foil. This layer will reflect the incoming pulse, forming a so-called plasma mirror. A simple realistic model based on paired…
Polarization modulation is a powerful technique to increase the stability of measurements by enabling the distinction of a polarized signal from dominant slow system drifts and unpolarized foregrounds. Furthermore, when placed as close to…
Plasmonic metasurfaces enable simultaneous control of the phase, momentum, amplitude and polarisation of light and hence promise great utility in realisation of compact photonic devices. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel chip-scale…
For decades since the development of phase-contrast optical microscopy, an analogous approach has been sought for maximizing the image contrast of weakly-scattering objects in transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The recent development…
We show that a passive dispersive reflector integrated into a semiconductor laser can be used to tailor the laser dynamics for the generation of ultrashort pulses as well as stable dual-mode lasing. We analyze the stability using a general…
We review the principle and methodology of leakage radiation microscopy (LRM) applied to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Therefore we first analyse in detail the electromagnetic theory of leaky SPP waves. We show that LRM is a versatile…
Reaching light intensities above $10^{25}$ W/cm$^{2}$ and up to the Schwinger limit ($10^{29}$ W/cm$^{2}$) would enable testing decades-old fundamental predictions of Quantum Electrodynamics. A promising yet challenging approach to achieve…
A novel scheme is proposed to generate uniform relativistic electron layers for coherent Thomson backscattering. A few-cycle laser pulse is used to produce the electron layer from an ultra-thin solid foil. The key element of the new scheme…
Compact devices for broadband polarization control in the terahertz (THz) regime are challenging due to the intrinsic phase dispersion of birefringent materials and resonant structures. Here, we demonstrate high-performance broadband THz…
The dispersion characteristics of an circularly polarized electromagnetic wave of arbitrary amplitude, propagating in a highly (thermally and kinematically) relativistic plasma, are shown to approach those of a linear wave in an…
Propagation features of circularly polarized (CP) electromagnetic waves in magnetized plasmas are determined by the plasma density and the magnetic field strength. This property can be applied to design a unique plasma photonic device for…
A broadband detection method with coherent laser pulses exciting surface plasmons is investigated. The intensity and phase characteristics of the reflected light in Kretschmann configuration are calculated. It is shown that by mixing…