Generating optical supercontinuum and frequency comb in tenuous plasmas
Abstract
There are several mechanisms by which the frequency spectrum of a laser broadens when it propagates at near-relativistic-intensity in tenuous plasma. Focusing on one dimensional effects, we identify two strong optical nonlinearities, namely, four-wave mixing (FWM) and forward Raman scattering (FRS), for creating octave-wide spectra. FWM dominates the interaction when the laser pulse is short and intense; Its combination with phase modulation produces a symmetrically broadened supercontinuum. FRS dominates when the laser pulse is long and relatively weak; It broadens the laser spectrum mainly towards lower frequencies and produces a frequency comb. The creation of the supercontinuum and frequency combs only frequency modulates, but does not compress, the laser pulse.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2103.14678,
title = {Generating optical supercontinuum and frequency comb in tenuous plasmas},
author = {Kenan Qu and Nathaniel J. Fisch},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.14678},
year = {2021}
}