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Lecture

Ultrafast Lasers and Non-linear Optics

In course

CH-417: Optical methods in chemistry

Introduction and application of photon based tools for chemical sciences: from basic concepts to optical and x-ray lasers ...

Description

This lecture covers the principles of ultrafast lasers and non-linear optics, starting with an introduction to ray optics and wave optics, followed by discussions on laser principles, optical tweezers, microscopy, manipulation, spectroscopy, and electrodynamic optics. It also explores materials properties, linear and non-linear effects, ultrafast lasers, X-rays, diffraction, imaging, and spectroscopy. The instructor explains the concepts of mode selection, cavity dumping, Q-switching, mode locking, and chirped pulse amplification. The lecture delves into the Optical Kerr Effect, self-focusing, and self-phase modulation in non-linear optics, as well as post-compression techniques using chirped mirror compressors. The presentation concludes with a discussion on the Nobel Prize-winning contributions in physics and chemistry related to ultrafast lasers and non-linear optics.

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Instructor

Christoph Bostedt

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Ultrashort pulse

In optics, an ultrashort pulse, also known as an ultrafast event, is an electromagnetic pulse whose time duration is of the order of a picosecond (10−12 second) or less. Such pulses have a broadband optical spectrum, and can be created by mode-locked oscillators. Amplification of ultrashort pulses almost always requires the technique of chirped pulse amplification, in order to avoid damage to the gain medium of the amplifier. They are characterized by a high peak intensity (or more correctly, irradiance) that usually leads to nonlinear interactions in various materials, including air.

Nonlinear optics

Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in nonlinear media, that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity is typically observed only at very high light intensities (when the electric field of the light is >108 V/m and thus comparable to the atomic electric field of ~1011 V/m) such as those provided by lasers. Above the Schwinger limit, the vacuum itself is expected to become nonlinear.

Mode locking

Mode locking is a technique in optics by which a laser can be made to produce pulses of light of extremely short duration, on the order of picoseconds (10−12 s) or femtoseconds (10−15 s). A laser operated in this way is sometimes referred to as a femtosecond laser, for example, in modern refractive surgery. The basis of the technique is to induce a fixed phase relationship between the longitudinal modes of the laser's resonant cavity. Constructive interference between these modes can cause the laser light to be produced as a train of pulses.

Chirped pulse amplification

Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique for amplifying an ultrashort laser pulse up to the petawatt level, with the laser pulse being stretched out temporally and spectrally, then amplified, and then compressed again. The stretching and compression uses devices that ensure that the different color components of the pulse travel different distances. CPA for lasers was introduced by Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou at the University of Rochester in the mid-1980s, work for which they received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018.

Optics

Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Because light is an electromagnetic wave, other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves exhibit similar properties.

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