A comprehensive guide to a new technology for enabling high-performance spectroscopy and laser sources Resonance Enhancement in Laser-Produced Plasmas offers a guide to the most recent findings in the newly emerged field of resonance-enhanced high-order harmonic generation using the laser pulses propagating through the narrow and extended laser-produced plasma plumes. The author—a noted expert in the field—presents an introduction and the theory that underpin the roles of resonances in harmonic generation. The book also contains a review of the most advanced methods of plasma harmonics generation at the conditions of coincidence of some harmonics, autoionizing states, and some ionic transitions possessing strong oscillator strengths. Comprehensive in scope, this text clearly demonstrates the importance of resonance-enhanced nonlinear optical effects leading to formation of efficient sources of coherent extreme ultraviolet radiation that can be practically applied. This important resource: Puts the focuses on novel applications of laser-plasma physics, such as the development of ultrashort-wavelength coherent light sources Details both the theoretical and experimental aspects of higher-order harmonic generation in laser-produced plasmas Contains information on early studies of resonance enhancement of harmonics in metal-ablated plasmas Analyzes the drawbacks of different theories of resonant high order harmonic generation Includes a discussion of the quasi-phase-matching and properties of semiconductor plasmas Written for researchers and students in the fields of physics, materials science, and electrical engineering who are interested in laser physics and optics, Resonance Enhancement in Laser-Produced Plasmas offers an introduction to the topic and covers recent experimental studies of various resonance processes in plasmas leading to enhancement of single harmonic.

Nanostructured Nonlinear Optical Materials: Formation and Fabrication covers the analysis of the formation, characterization and optical nonlinearities of various nanostructures using different methods. It addresses many areas of research in the field, including the modification of the surfaces of materials for the formation of various nanostructures, transmission electron microscopy and time-of-flight mass spectroscopy studies of ablated bulk and nanoparticle targets, the low-order nonlinearities of metal and semiconductor nanoparticles, the nonlinear refraction and nonlinear absorption of carbon-contained nanoparticles, and low- and high-order harmonic generation in nanoparticle-contained plasmas, amongst other topics. The book is an essential reference for all nanomaterials researchers in the fields of photonics, materials, physics, chemistry and nanotechnology. - Present complete coverage of the formation, characterization and optical nonlinearities of nanostructures - Builds on basic theory, showing the strengths of the application of nanostructures in optical materials - Written by a leading expert in the subject

This thesis presents a systematic discussion of experimental approaches to investigating the nonlinear interaction of ultrashort visible strong fields with dielectrics directly in the time domain. The key finding is the distinctly different peak-intensity dependence of the light-matter energy transfer dynamics on the one hand, and the observed transient optical and electronic modifications on the other. As the induced electron dynamics evolve on sub-femtosecond timescales, real-time spectroscopy requires attosecond temporal resolution. This allows a range of parameters to be identified where the optical properties of the samples exposed to ultrashort light fields suffer dramatic changes allowing signal metrology while real absorption leading to dissipation is essentially absent. These findings indicate the feasibility of efficient optical switching at frequencies several orders of magnitude faster than current state-of-the-art electronics and thus have far-reaching technological consequences.

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Over the last few years, there has been a convergence between the fields of ultrafast science, nonlinear optics, optical frequency metrology, and precision laser spectroscopy. These fields have been developing largely independently since the birth of the laser, reaching remarkable levels of performance. On the ultrafast frontier, pulses of only a few cycles long have been produced, while in optical spectroscopy, the precision and resolution have reached one part in Although these two achievements appear to be completely disconnected, advances in nonlinear optics provided the essential link between them. The resulting convergence has enabled unprecedented advances in the control of the electric field of the pulses produced by femtosecond mode-locked lasers. The corresponding spectrum consists of a comb of sharp spectral lines with well-defined frequencies. These new techniques and capabilities are generally known as “femtosecond comb technology. ” They have had dramatic impact on the diverse fields of precision measurement and extreme nonlinear optical physics. The historical background for these developments is provided in the Foreword by two of the pioneers of laser spectroscopy, John Hall and Theodor Hänsch. Indeed the developments described in this book were foreshadowed by Hänsch’s early work in the 1970s when he used picosecond pulses to demonstrate the connection between the time and frequency domains in laser spectroscopy. This work complemented the advances in precision laser stabilization developed by Hall.

This thesis presents first successful experiments to carrier-envelope-phase stabilize a high-power mode-locked thin-disk oscillator and to compress the pulses emitted from this laser to durations of only a few-optical cycles. Moreover, the monograph introduces several methods to achieve power-scalability of compression and stabilization techniques. All experimental approaches are compared in detail and may serve as a guideline for developing high-power waveform controlled, few-cycle light sources which offer tremendous potential to exploit extreme nonlinear optical effects at unprecedentedly high repetition rates and to establish table-top infrared light sources with a unique combination of brilliance and bandwidth. As an example, the realization of a multi-Watt, multi-octave spanning, mid-infrared femtosecond source is described. The thesis starts with a basic introduction to the field of ultrafast laser oscillators. It subsequently presents additional details of previously published research results and establishes a connection between them. It therefore addresses both newcomers to, and experts in the field of high-power ultrafast laser development.

This new edition features numerous updates and additions. Especially 4 new chapters on Fiber Optics, Integrated Optics, Frequency Combs and Interferometry reflect the changes since the first edition. In addition, major complete updates for the chapters: Optical Materials and Their Properties, Optical Detectors, Nanooptics, and Optics far Beyond the Diffraction Limit. Features Contains over 1000 two-color illustrations. Includes over 120 comprehensive tables with properties of optical materials and light sources. Emphasizes physical concepts over extensive mathematical derivations. Chapters with summaries, detailed index Delivers a wealth of up-to-date references.