Controllable molecule waves in the femtosecond regime

We investigate the nonautonomous molecule waves of the inhomogeneous Hirota equation describing the propagation of femtosecond pulses in inhomogeneous fibers. By employing the characteristic line analysis, the breather molecules of the inhomogeneous Hirota equation under different cases of dispersion and nonlinear modulation are obtained. We find that the inhomogeneous coefficients d2(z) and d3(z) have influences on the distance between atoms. In addition, we introduce the state transitions to the nonautonomous breather molecules and reveal that there is no full-transition mode for the inhomogeneous Hirota equation.

Nonlinear Absorption and Refraction of Picosecond and Femtosecond Pulses in HgTe Quantum Dot Films

We report measurements of the saturated intensities, saturable absorption, and nonlinear refraction in 70-nm thick films containing 4 nm HgTe quantum dots. We demonstrate strong nonlinear refraction and saturable absorption in the thin films using tunable picosecond and femtosecond pulses. Studies were carried out using tunable laser pulses in the range of 400–1100 nm. A significant variation of the nonlinear refraction along this spectral range was demonstrated. The maximal values of the nonlinear absorption coefficients and nonlinear refractive indices determined within the studied wavelength range were −2.4 × 10−5 cm2 W−1 (in the case of 28 ps, 700 nm probe pulses) and −3 × 10−9 cm2 W−1 (in the case of 28 ps, 400 nm probe pulses), respectively. Our studies show that HgTe quantum dots can be used in different fields e.g., as efficient emitters of high-order harmonics of ultrashort laser pulses or as laser mode-lockers.

Amplification of Elliptically Polarized Sub-Femtosecond Pulses in Neon-Like X-Ray Laser Modulated By An IR Field

Amplification of attosecond pulses produced via high harmonic generation is a formidable problem since none of the amplifiers can support the corresponding PHz bandwidth. Producing the well defined polarization state common for a set of harmonics required for formation of the circularly/elliptically polarized attosecond pulses (which are on demand for dynamical imaging and coherent control of the spin flip processes) is another big challenge. In this work we show how both problems can be tackled simultaneously on the basis of the same platform, namely, the plasma-based X-ray amplifier whose resonant transition frequency is modulated by an infrared field.