With the wavelength of a short-pulse laser driver shifted to the midinfrared range, the low-frequency output of laser-induced plasmas can be drastically enhanced, as our experiments show, providing a source of ultrabroadband radiation with a spectrum spanning across the entire terahertz, millimeter-wave, and microwave bands. At low gas pressures, such ultrabroadband field waveforms are shown to rapidly build up their coherence, developing a well-resolved emission cone, dominated by a radial radiation energy flux. As counterintuitive as it may seem, this behavior of the intensity, coherence, and polarization of the low-frequency plasma output is shown to be consistent with a physical scenario of Cherenkov-type radiation emission by ponderomotively driven plasma currents.
Spectral analysis of high-order harmonics generated by ultrashort mid-infrared pulses in molecular nitrogen reveals well-resolved signatures of inverse Raman scattering, showing up near the frequencies of prominent vibrational transitions of nitrogen molecules. When tuned on a resonance with the vʹ = 0 → vʺ = 0 pathway within the B3Πg → C3Πu second positive system of molecular nitrogen, the eleventh harmonic of a 3.9-μm sub-80-fs driver is shown to acquire a distinctive antisymmetric spectral profile with red-shifted bright and blue-shifted dark features as indicators of stimulated Raman gain and loss. This high-harmonic setting extends the inverse Raman effect to a vast class of strong-field light–matter interaction scenarios.
We study supercontinuum (SC) generation in large-mode-area (LMA) photonic crystal fibers with various core sizes and lengths, pumped by a picosecond Nd:YVO4 laser. Micro-joule level SC pulse energy is achieved, and the spectrum extends beyond 1600 nm, corresponding to an effective Raman detection range over 3000 wavenumbers. A multiplex CARS setup based on the SC source is constructed, and we demonstrate CARS acquisition in air, and compare the signal obtained with different LMA fiber parameters.
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