The generation of femtosecond optical vortex beams with megawatt powers directly from a fiber based Mamyshev oscillator

Numerous approaches have been developed to generate optical vortex beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) over the past decades, but the direct intracavity generation of such beams with practical output powers in the femtosecond regime still remains a challenge. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate the efficient generation of high-peak-power femtosecond optical vortex pulses from a Mamyshev oscillator (MO) based on few-mode polarization-maintaining (PM) ytterbium-doped fibers (YDFs). By employing an appropriate intracavity transverse spatial mode selection technique, ultrafast pulses carrying OAM with selectable topological charge of l = ±1 are successfully generated with an average output power of ∼5.72 W at ∼24.35 MHz repetition rate, corresponding to a single pulse energy of ∼235 nJ. The chirped pulses can be compressed to ∼76 fs outside the cavity, leading to a pulse peak power of ∼2.2 MW. To the best of our knowledge, this is by far the highest pulse energy and peak power for optical vortex pulses ever generated directly from a fiber oscillator. This unprecedented level of performance should be of great interest for a variety of applications including materials processing and imaging.

Chirp waveform control to produce broad harmonic plateau and single attosecond pulse

Waveform control of three kinds of chirped pulses (i.e. βt, βt 2 and βt 3) to produce harmonic spectra and attosecond pulses has been investigated. It is found that by properly choosing the chirps, the chirp delays and the other laser parameters, not only the instantaneous frequency of some specific half profiles can be decreased, but also its intensity can be increased. As a result, the free electron can receive more energy when it accelerates in these regions, thus leading to the extension of the harmonic cutoff and harmonic plateau. Finally, through the Fourier transformation of the harmonic spectra and by superposing some harmonics, three single attosecond pulses with the durations of 30 as, 33 as and 39 as can be obtained.

Creation of quantum entangled states of Rydberg atoms via chirped adiabatic passage

Entangled states are crucial for modern quantum enabled technology which makes their creation key for future developments. In this paper, a robust quantum control methodology is presented to create entangled states of two typical classes, the W and the Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ). It was developed from the analysis of a chain of alkali atoms $$^{87}Rb$$ 87 R b interaction with laser pulses, which leads to the two-photon transitions from the ground to the Rydberg states with a predetermined magnetic quantum number. The methodology is based on the mechanism of the two-photon excitation, adiabatic for the GHZ and non-adiabatic for the W state, induced by the overlapping chirped pulses and governed by the Rabi frequency, the one-photon detuning, and the strength of the Rydberg–Rydberg interactions.