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Femtosecond to attosecond light pulses from a molecular modulator

Nature Photonics volume 5, pages 664–671 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ultrafast science has begun to tackle the measurement of electronic and chemical processes taking place on the few-femtosecond-to-attosecond timescale. This field requires high-power, extremely short-duration laser pulses. Here we review progress towards the generation of such pulses by Raman scattering in a medium whose component molecules oscillate in phase, which modulates the optical polarizability of the medium and generates high-order Raman sidebands on a field propagating through it. This process may occur with high efficiency and thus lead to sufficient bandwidth for supporting few-femtosecond to attosecond pulses. Significant progress has recently been made in the use of this technique to deliver useable ultrashort pulses in the visible to ultraviolet regions of the spectrum.

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Figure 1: Schematic of the field synthesis experiments conducted by Chan et al.9
Figure 2: The process of cascaded Raman scattering.
Figure 3: Adiabatic preparation of a Raman modulator.
Figure 4: Impulsive preparation of a Raman modulator.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grants EP/F034601/1, EP/E036112/1 and EP/E028063/1 and the EU FASTQUAST Initial Training Network (214962). We are indebted to the scientific insights of and fruitful discussions with P. Bustard, E. Sali, B. Sussman, F. Benabid, A. Sokolov, S. Harris and A. Kung.

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  1. Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    S. Baker, J. W. G. Tisch & J. P. Marangos

  2. Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK

    I. A. Walmsley

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Baker, S., Walmsley, I., Tisch, J. et al. Femtosecond to attosecond light pulses from a molecular modulator. Nature Photon 5, 664–671 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2011.256

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