Related papers: Polarization state control for high peak power app…
High-harmonic generation from solids can be utilized as probe of ultrafast dynamics, but thus far only over extended sample areas, since its spatial resolution is diffraction-limited. Here we propose spatial polarization gating, that is…
Ultrafast extreme ultraviolet (XUV) sources with a controllable polarization state are powerful tools for investigating the structural and electronic as well as the magnetic properties of materials. However, such light sources are still…
A new regime is described for Radiation Pressure Acceleration of a thin foil by an intense laser beam of above 10^20 W/cm^2. Highly monoenergetic proton beams extending to GeV energies can be produced with very high efficiency using…
Ellipsometry is a powerful and well-established optical technique used in the characterisation of materials. It works by combining the components of elliptically polarized light in order to draw information about the optical system. We…
We propose a new class of photonic devices based on periodic stress fields in silicon that enable second-order nonlinearity as well as quasi-phase matching. Periodically-poled silicon (PePSi) adds the periodic poling capability to silicon…
We present measurements of hard x-rays in the 50-300 keV range from copper plasmas produced by 100 fs, 806 nm laser pulses at a peak intensity ~ 1016 W cm-2. Surface roughness, even at the tens of nanometer level, is shown to influence the…
A very efficient method for the calculation of the effective optical response of nano-structured composite systems allows the design of metamaterials tailored for specific optical polarization properties. We use our method to design 2D…
The polarimetric properties of an adjustable two plate quarter-wave system have been investigated. Multiple beam interference within single wave-plates has been taken into account. It has been shown that different adjustments are needed to…
We present a simple motorised rotation mount for a half-wave plate that can be used to rapidly change the polarization of light. We use the device to switch a high power laser beam between different optical dipole traps in an ultracold atom…
We demonstrate that the key to realizing arbitrary control over pairs of polarization states of light, i.e. transforming an arbitrarily polarized pair of input states to an arbitrarily polarized pair of output states, is the ability to…
The future applications of the short-duration, multi-MeV ion beams produced in the interaction of high-intensity laser pulses with solid targets will require improvements in the conversion efficiency, peak ion energy, beam monochromaticity,…
Particle acceleration using ultraintense, ultrashort laser pulses is one of the most attractive topics in relativistic laser-plasma research. We report proton/ion acceleration in the intensity range of 5x1019 W/cm2 to 3.3x1020 W/cm2 by…
Polarization is one of the basic properties of electromagnetic waves conveying valuable information in signal transmission and sensitive measurements. Conventional methods for advanced polarization control impose demanding requirements on…
An ideal plasma lens can provide the focusing power of a small f-number, solid-state focusing optic at a fraction of the diameter. An ideal plasma lens, however, relies on a steady-state, linear laser pulse-plasma interaction. Ultrashort…
We present a simple novel scheme that converts a Gaussian beam into an approximated radially polarized beam using coherent polarization manipulation together with Poynting walk-off in birefringent crystals. Our scheme alleviates the…
The ability to spatially separate the electric and magnetic fields of a light beam enables the inspection of laser-matter interactions driven solely by optical magnetic fields. However, magnetic field excitations are commonly orders of…
Coherent radiation with frequencies ranging from 0.3 to 30 THz has recently become accessible by femtosecond laser technology. Terahertz (THz) waves have already found many applications in spectroscopy and imaging, and they can be…
We conduct particle-in-cell simulations to estimate the effects of circularly and linearly polarized SEL 100 PW lasers on flat Th targets with thicknesses of 50 nm, 100 nm and 250 nm, as well as easy to manufacture conical Th targets with…
Attosecond metrology sensitive to sub-optical-cycle electronic and structural dynamics is opening up new avenues for ultrafast spectroscopy of condensed matter. Using intense lightwaves to precisely control the extremely fast carrier…
We explore a robust fabrication process for periodically-poled thin-film lithium tantalate (PP-TFLT) by systematically varying fabrication parameters and confirming the quality of inverted domains with second-harmonic microscopy (SHM). We…