Related papers: Design and optimization of zone plates for flying …
Spatiotemporal pulse shaping provides control over the trajectory and range of an intensity peak. While this control can enhance laser-based applications, the optical configurations required for shaping the pulse can constrain the…
Focusing petawatt-level laser beams to a variety of spot sizes for different applications is expensive in cost, labor and space. In this paper, we propose a plasma lens to flexibly resize the laser beam by utilizing the laser self-focusing…
Thin structured surfaces allow flexible control over propagation of electromagnetic waves. Focusing and polarization state analysis are among functions, required for effective manipulation of radiation. Here a polarization sensitive Fresnel…
We present a novel laser mode-locking scheme and discuss its unusual properties and feasibility using a theoretical model. A large set of single-frequency continuous-wave lasers oscillate by amplification in spatially separated gain media.…
In this paper we develop a method capable of modeling the space-time focusing of nondiffracting pulses. The new pulses can possess arbitrary peak velocities and, in addition to being resistant to diffraction, can have their peak intensities…
Optical techniques for spatiotemporal control can produce laser pulses with custom amplitude, phase, or polarization structure. In nonlinear optics and plasma physics, the use of structured pulses typically follows a forward design…
We implemented the inverse design method to build a thin near-field lens that could produce a desired subwavelength focus by manipulating the near fields of a magnetic dipole source. The flat near-field lens represented by an artificial…
The emergence of planar meta-lenses on flexible materials has profoundly impacted the long-standing perception of diffractive optics. Despite their advantages, these lenses still face challenges in design and fabrication to obtain high…
Fresnel zone plates (FZPs), with patterns of $1\,\mu$m resolution, allow the formation of clean, diffraction-limited foci -- but have a static phase profile. Spatial light modulators (SLMs) allow dynamic control of spatial beam intensity…
We presents the results of study of focusing and imaging properties of double-lens system for hard x-ray radiation consisting of two Fresnel zone plates (ZP) made from silicon. We demonstrate for the first time the phenomenon of focusing by…
Recently introduced, spaceplates achieve the propagation of light for a distance greater than their thickness. In this way, they compress optical space, reducing the required distance between optical elements in an imaging system. Here we…
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…
Flying-focus wakefields, which can propagate with a tunable velocity along the optical axis, are promising solutions to electron dephasing in laser-wakefield accelerators. This is accomplished by a combination of spatio-temporal couplings…
A new technique based on superposition of two speckle patterns is proposed and demonstrated for controlled modulation of the spatial polarization distribution of the resultant speckle. It is demonstrated both theoretically and…
We propose a method for designing multifocal diffractive lenses generating prescribed sets of foci with fixed positions at several different wavelengths. The method is based on minimizing the difference between the complex amplitudes of the…
Laser-driven proton sources have long been developed with an eye on their potential for medical application to radiation therapy. These sources are compact, versatile, and show peculiar characteristics such as extreme instantaneous dose…
When a pulsed, few-cycle electromagnetic wave is focused by optics with f-number smaller than two, the frequency components it contains are focused to different regions of space, building up a complex electromagnetic field structure.…
Compact, stable, and versatile laser-driven ion sources hold great promise for applications ranging from medicine to materials science and fundamental physics. While single-shot sources have demonstrated favorable beam properties, including…
We describe how active feedback routines can be applied at limited repetition rate (5 Hz) to optimize high-power $>10$ TW) laser interactions with clustered gases. Optimization of x-ray production from an argon cluster jet, using a genetic…
Diffraction limits the behaviour of light in optical systems and sets the smallest achievable line width at half the wavelength. With a novel subwavelength plasmonic lens to reduce the diffraction via an asymmetry and to generate and…