High-order harmonic generation (HHG) has been recently proven to produce harmonic vortices carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) in the extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) region from the nonlinear up-conversion of infrared vortex beams. In this work we present two methods to control and extend the OAM content of the harmonic vortices. First, we show that when a driver combination of different vortex modes is used, HHG leads to the production of harmonic vortices with a broad OAM content due to its nonperturbative nature. Second, we show that harmonic vortices with two discrete OAM contributions –so called fractional OAM modes– are generated when HHG is driven by conical refraction beams. Our work offers the possibility of generating tunable OAM beams in the XUV regime, potentially extensible to the soft x rays, overcoming the state of the art limitations for the generation of OAM beams far from the visible domain.
Extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) attosecond vortices carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) are produced through high-order harmonic generation (HHG) from the nonlinear conversion of infrared twisted beams. While previous works demonstrated a linear scaling law of the vortex OAM content with the harmonic order, an unexpectedly rich scenario for the OAM buildup appears when HHG is driven by a vortex combination. The non-perturbative nature of HHG increases the OAM content of the attosecond vortices when the driving field presents an azimuthally varying intensity profile. We theoretically explore the underlying mechanisms for this diversity and disentangle the perturbative and non-perturbative nature in the generation of EUV attosecond twisted through numerical simulations.
Non linear propagation of ultra short pulses in air is studied. By preparing an initial field distribution by an amplitude mask we can obtain a Townes soliton[1] (self similar channel of coherent radiation) in air. Experimental observation can be described accurately by the numerical integration of the Non Linear Schroedinger Equation (NLSE) and allow us to explain the origin of the remarkable stability of this soliton as a balance between diffraction and Kerr effect. We further explore on the role of coherence by revisiting the two slit Young's experiment but now in the non linear regime.
Proc. SPIE. 6256, ICONO 2005: Ultrafast Phenomena and Physics of Superintense Laser Fields; Quantum and Atom Optics; Engineering of Quantum Information
We report the observation of self-guided propagation of 120 fs, 0.56 mJ infrared pulse in air for distances greater
than a meter (more than thirty Rayleigh Lengths). The numerical simulations demonstrates the this localized
structure corresponds to a Townes soliton, specially stable under these conditions.
Proc. SPIE. 6256, ICONO 2005: Ultrafast Phenomena and Physics of Superintense Laser Fields; Quantum and Atom Optics; Engineering of Quantum Information
KEYWORDS: Waveguides, Scattering, Dispersion, Chemical species, Particles, Physics, Solitons, Wave propagation, Quantum physics, Quantum information
It is known that solitons of Bose-Einstein condensates with positive scattering lengths can be produced in optical
lattices. The key of this process is the negative sign of the effective mass of the wavepacket as it comes closer
to the edge of the first Brillouin zone. However, the underlying assumption of the effective mass approach is
the slow variation of the wavefunction envelope between consecutive lattice cells. Previous experiments and
computations on this type of solitons show that this is not the usual case. In this contribution we will go beyond
the slowly varying assumption to demonstrate that the equations governing the dynamics of gap solitons contain
a third derivative in the dispersion. As a result, the dynamics of the stabilized wavepackets is found different that
the soliton's. In particular, a radiative component is present, and the stability under collisions is only partially
achieved.
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