Efficient generation of relativistic near-single-cycle mid-infrared pulses in plasmas

Xing-Long Zhu; Su-Ming Weng; Min Chen; Zheng-Ming Sheng; Jie Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41377-020-0282-3

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Efficient generation of relativistic near-single-cycle mid-infrared pulses in plasmas

Article

- Efficient generation of relativistic near-single-cycle mid-infrared pulses in plasmas
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 9, Issue 2, Pages: 405-413(2020)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (MOE), School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240 Shanghai, China
  2.Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240 Shanghai, China
  3.SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, UK
  4.Cockcroft Institute, Sci-Tech Daresbury, Cheshire WA4 4AD, UK
  5.Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, 200240 Shanghai, China
  6.Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190 Beijing, China
- Author bio：
  
  Su-Ming Weng (wengsuming@sjtu.edu.cn)
  Zheng-Ming Sheng (z.sheng@strath.ac.uk)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-020-0282-3
  CLC：
- Published：2020，
  
  Published Online：20 March 2020，
  
  Received：16 September 2019，
  
  Revised：29 February 2020，
  
  Accepted：04 March 2020
- Accepted：
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Zhu, X. L. et al. Efficient generation of relativistic near-single-cycle mid-infrared pulses in plasmas. Light: Science & Applications, 9, 405-413 (2020).
DOI：

Zhu, X. L. et al. Efficient generation of relativistic near-single-cycle mid-infrared pulses in plasmas. Light: Science & Applications, 9, 405-413 (2020). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-020-0282-3.

摘要

Abstract

Ultrashort intense optical pulses in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) region are very important for broad applications ranging from super-resolution spectroscopy to attosecond X-ray pulse generation and particle acceleration. However

currently

it is still difficult to produce few-cycle mid-IR pulses of relativistic intensities using standard optical techniques. Here

we propose and numerically demonstrate a novel scheme to produce these mid-IR pulses based on laser-driven plasma optical modulation. In this scheme

a plasma wake is first excited by an intense drive laser pulse in an underdense plasma

and a signal laser pulse initially at the same wavelength (1 micron) as that of the drive laser is subsequently injected into the plasma wake. The signal pulse is converted to a relativistic multi-millijoule near-single-cycle mid-IR pulse with a central wavelength of ~5 microns via frequency-downshifting

where the energy conversion efficiency is as high as approximately 30% when the drive and signal laser pulses are both at a few tens of millijoules at the beginning. Our scheme can be realized with terawatt-class kHz laser systems

which may bring new opportunities in high-field physics and ultrafast science.

关键词

Keywords

references

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