We demonstrate a novel approach to femtosecond microfabrication of transparent dielectrics, which employs nondiffracting Bessel beams instead of the conventionally used Gaussian beams. The main advantage of Bessel beams is the possibility of recording linear photomodified tracks, extending along the lines of nondiffractive beam propagation without sample translation, as would be required for Gaussian beams. Recording of patterns with an aspect ratio of up to 102–103 in vitreous silica using amplified femtosecond Ti:saphire laser pulses is demonstrated.

Application of Bessel Beams for Microfabrication of Dielectrics by Femtosecond Laser : Instrumentation, Measurement, and Fabrication Technology

Molecular hydrogen is expected to display metallic properties under high pressures, but so far experiments performed at low temperatures (100 K) have showed that hydrogen remains insulating up to 300 GPa. A transformation of normal molecular hydrogen to a conductive and metallic state at room temperature is now observed above 220 GPa.

Conductive dense hydrogen

Here, we present thorough research into high-order vector Bessel-Gauss beams from a theoretical perspective, with experimental realization and application to transparent-material laser micromachining. Efficient, stable, high-quality, and power-vector Bessel-Gauss beam generation using two geometric-phase-based optical elements, a high-order $S$-wave plate and an axicon in combination with simple optical elements, such as lenses, wave plates, and polarizers, is demonstrated. Ultrashort pulse-vector Bessel-Gauss beams are used to induce modifications in the glass, creating three-dimensional tubular structures of type I and type II modification in D263T glass. Furthermore, samples containing tubular modifications are tested for etch selectivity in the femtosecond-laser-induced chemical-etching method with KOH solution by etching throughout channels.

High-Order Vector Bessel-Gauss Beams for Laser Micromachining of Transparent Materials

Fabrication of large area (sub-1 cm cross-section) micro-optical components in a short period of time (~ 10 min) and with lesser number of processing steps is highly desirable and cost-effective. In the recent years, femtosecond laser fabrication technology has revolutionized the field of manufacturing by offering the above capabilities. In this study, a fundamental diffractive optical element, binary axicon–axicon with two phase or amplitude levels, has been designed in three configurations namely conventional axicon, photon sieve axicon (PSA) and sparse PSA and directly milled onto a sapphire substrate. The fabrication results revealed that a single pulse burst fabrication can produce a flatter and smoother profile than pulse overlapped fabrication which gives rise to surface damage and increased roughness. The fabricated elements were processed in IsoPropyl alcohol and potassium hydroxide to remove debris and redeposited amorphous sapphire. An incoherent illumination was used for optical testing of the components and a non-linear optical filter was used for cleaning the noisy images generated by the diffractive optical elements.

Imaging with diffractive axicons rapidly milled on sapphire by femtosecond laser ablation

Infrared (IR) microspectroscopy is a powerful molecular fingerprinting tool widely used for the identification of structural and functional composition of biological and chemical samples. The IR microspectroscopy beamline at the Australian Synchrotron can be operated either with a single-point narrow-band mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) detector or a focal plane array (FPA) imaging detector with 64 × 64 pixels. For the implementation of indirect nonscanning imaging technology, the system was operated with the FPA detector. In this study, we propose an indirect IR imaging technique based on the principles of correlation optics using diffractive optical elements such as random pinhole array (RPA) and Fresnel zone plate (FZP). The spatial and spectral variations of point spread functions (PSFs) of the RPA and FZP were simulated for the synchrotron configuration. Intensity responses for 2D objects were simulated using the same simulation conditions and reconstructed using Lucy-Richardson algorithm. Fabrication of diffractive elements for IR wavelengths is often a challenging task as the IR transparent material substrates, such as barium fluoride and calcium fluoride, are highly susceptible to thermal shocks and brittle by nature. The diffractive elements were fabricated by ablating directly on a 100 nm thick gold coated substrate using femtosecond laser pulses. The simulation results and the fabrication outcomes demonstrate the feasibility of indirect imaging at the synchrotron IR beamline.

Femtosecond laser fabrication of diffractive optics for spatial and spectral imaging at synchrotron infrared beamlines

We put forward a co-axial pump (optical)-probe (x-rays) experimental concept and show performance of the optical component. A Bessel beam generator with a central 100 µm diameter hole (on the optical axis) was fabricated using femtosecond (fs) laser structuring inside a silica plate. This flat-axicon optical element produces a needle-like axial intensity distribution which can be used for the optical pump pulse. The fs-x-ray free electron laser (X-FEL) beam of sub-1 µm diameter can be introduced through the central hole along the optical axis onto a target as a probe. Different realisations of optical pump are discussed. Such optical elements facilitate alignment of ultra-short fs-pulses in space and time and can be used in light–matter interaction experiments at extreme energy densities on the surface and in the volume of targets. Full advantage of ultra-short 10 fs-X-FEL probe pulses with fs-pump (optical) opens an unexplored temporal dimension of phase transitions and the fastest laser-induced rates of material heating and quenching. A wider field of applications of fs-laser-enabled structuring of materials and design of specific optical elements for astrophotonics is presented.

All femtosecond optical pump and x-ray probe: holey-axicon for free electron lasers

We put forward a co-axial pump(optical)-probe(X-rays) experimental concept and show performance of the optical component. A Bessel beam generator with a central 100 micrometers-diameter hole (on the optical axis) was fabricated using femtosecond (fs) laser structuring inside a silica plate. This flat-axicon optical element produces a needle-like axial intensity distribution which can be used for the optical pump pulse. The fs-X-ray free electron laser (X-FEL) beam of sub-1 micrometer diameter can be introduced through the central hole along the optical axis onto a target as a probe. Different realisations of optical pump are discussed. Such optical elements facilitate alignment of ultra-short fs-pulses in space and time and can be used in light-matter interaction experiments at extreme energy densities on the surface and in the volume of targets. Full advantage of ultra-short 10 fs X-FEL probe pulses with fs-pump(optical) opens an unexplored temporal dimension of phase transitions and the fastest laser-induced rates of material heating and quenching. A wider field of applications of fs-laser-enabled structuring of materials and design of specific optical elements for astrophotonics is presented.

All femtosecond optical pump and X-ray probe: holey-axicon for free electron laser

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Jean P. Brodie

Papers

All femtosecond optical pump and x-ray probe: holey-axicon for free electron lasers

All femtosecond optical pump and X-ray probe: holey-axicon for free electron laser

All Femtosecond Optical Pump and X-Ray Probe: Holey-Axicon for Free Electron Laser