Curve-shaped ultrashort laser pulses with programmable spatiotemporal behavior

Structured ultrashort laser pulses with controlled spatiotemporal properties are emerging as a key tool for the study and application of light-matter interactions in different fields such as microscopy, time-resolved imaging, laser micromachining, particle acceleration, and attosecond science. In pr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Franco Rodríguez, Enar, Martínez Matos, Óscar, Rodrigo Martín Romo, José Augusto
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/87360
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/87360
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:535
Orbital angular-momentum
Optical manipulation
Femtosecond
Bessel
Phase
Beams
Particles
Velocity
Forces
Traps
Óptica (Física)
2209 Óptica
Descripción
Sumario:Structured ultrashort laser pulses with controlled spatiotemporal properties are emerging as a key tool for the study and application of light-matter interactions in different fields such as microscopy, time-resolved imaging, laser micromachining, particle acceleration, and attosecond science. In practice, a structured ultrashort pulse focused along a target trajectory with controlled pulse dynamics is required, e.g., to set the trajectory and velocity of the resulting intensity peak. Here, to address this challenging problem, we present a technique and experimental setup that allows straightforward engineering of structured ultrashort laser pulses with control of their spatiotemporal properties enabling tailored pulse propagation dynamics along the target trajectory. Our theoretical framework describes the design and control of this kind of curve-shaped laser pulse in terms of the curve geometry and phase prescribed along it. We have derived a closed-form expression that describes the interplay between the curve geometry and prescribed phase governing the pulse dynamics, including the temporal behavior of the pulse peak intensity while preserving the pulse duration. The theoretical results and the corresponding numerical simulations allow us to analyze the pulse dynamics on the example of femtosecond curve-shaped vortex pulses, including contour-shaped pulses created to follow the outline of objects at micrometer scale. The experimental results demonstrate the generation of these structured ultrashort pulses. These findings could pave the way for the next generation of ultrashort laser-based optical tools for the study and control of light-matter interactions.