Femtosecond

About: Femtosecond is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 35106 publications have been published within this topic receiving 691405 citations. The topic is also known as: 1 E-15 s & fs.

Tailoring Spatiotemporal Light Confinement in Single Plasmonic Nanoantennas

Abstract: Plasmonic nanoantennas are efficient devices to concentrate light in spatial regions much smaller than the wavelength. Only recently, their ability to manipulate photons also on a femtosecond time scale has been harnessed. Nevertheless, designing the dynamical properties of optical antennas has been difficult since the relevant microscopic processes governing their ultrafast response have remained unclear. Here, we exploit frequency-resolved optical gating to directly investigate plasmon response times of different antenna geometries resonant in the near-infrared. Third-harmonic imaging is used in parallel to spatially monitor the plasmonic mode patterns. We find that the few-femtosecond dynamics of these nanodevices is dominated by radiative damping. A high efficiency for nonlinear frequency conversion is directly linked to long plasmon damping times. This single parameter explains the counterintuitive result that rod-type nanoantennas with minimum volume generate by far the strongest third-harmonic emission as compared to the more bulky geometries of bow-tie-, elliptical-, or disk-shaped specimens.

Selective two-photon microscopy with shaped femtosecond pulses.

Abstract: Selective two-photon excitation of fluorescent probe molecules using phase-only modulated ultrashort 15-fs laser pulses is demonstrated. The spectral phase required to achieve the maximum contrast in the excitation of different probe molecules or identical probe molecules in different micro-chemical environments is designed according to the principles of multiphoton intrapulse interference (MII). The MII method modulates the probabilities with which specific spectral components in the excitation pulse contribute to the two-photon absorption process due to the dependence of the absorption on the power spectrum of E2(t) [1–3]. Images obtained from a number of samples using the multiphoton microscope are presented.

Femtosecond encoder-decoders and ultrafast nonlinear thresholders and their integration in a femtosecond code division multiple access communication system test-bed

Abstract: This paper reports comprehensive experimental results on a femtosecond code-division multiple-access (CDMA) communication system test bed operating over optical fiber in the 1.5 /spl mu/m communication band. Our test bed integrates together several novel subsystems, including low-loss fiber-pigtailed pulse shapers for encoding-decoding, use of dispersion equalizing fibers in dispersion compensated links for femtosecond pulse transmission and also in femtosecond chirped pulse amplification (CPA) erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), and high-contrast nonlinear fiber-optic thresholders. The individual subsystems are described, and single-user system level experimental results demonstrating the ability to transmit spectrally encoded femtosecond pulses over a 2.5-km dispersion compensated fiber link followed by decoding and high contrast nonlinear thresholding are presented.

Resonant impulsive-stimulated Raman scattering on malachite green.

Abstract: We have studied in the femtosecond regime the transient dynamics of dichroism (anisotropic absorption), birefringence, and frequency shift induced by an intense femtosecond pump beam in the dye malachite green in solution. Vibrational quantum beats were observed superimposed on the saturated absorption and dispersion signals and quantitatively explained in terms of impulsive-stimulated Raman scattering close to an electronic resonance. The selectivity for observation of the vibrations in the two electronic states is described for the different experimental schemes. We discuss the access to vibrational and electronic dynamics in both ground and excited electronic states and compare the possibilities to those of previous techniques.

Frequency-domain interferometer for measuring the phase and amplitude of a femtosecond pulse probing a laser-produced plasma.

Abstract: A frequency-domain interferometer for probing the variations of the dielectric constant of a plasma with sub-100- fs temporal resolution and lambda/2000 phase resolution is described. Imaging the plasma on the entrance slit of a spectrograph provides spatial resolution along a diameter of the focal spot. The technique is used to map out the expansion of the critical density surface of a femtosecond laser-produced plasma with subnanometer spatial resolution along the laser axis.