Temporal focusing of ultrashort pulsed Bessel beams into Airy–Bessel light bullets (original) (raw)
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We investigate the dynamics of spatiotemporal optical waves with one transverse dimension that are obtained as the intersections of the dispersion cone with a plane. We show that, by appropriate spectral excitations, the three different types of conic sections (elliptic, parabolic, and hyperbolic) can lead to optical waves of the Bessel, Airy, and modified Bessel type, respectively. We find closed form solutions that accurately describe the wave dynamics and unveil their fundamental properties.
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Optics Letters, 2010
We report on a space-time compression technique allowing for complete and independent control of the longitudinal dynamics and of the transverse pulse localization by means of spatial beam shaping. We experimentally observe both strong temporal compression and high transverse localization, of the order of a few wavelengths, along free-space propagation.
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Optics Letters, 1996
We report experiments on ultrashort pulses that maintain their strong lateral and longitudinal localization in a bulk linear highly dispersive medium. The diameter of the central peak and the temporal width of the field autocorrelation function of the pulses were 20 mm and 210 fs, respectively, and the spatiotemporal structure was preserved in the course of 7-cm propagation in the sample. The pulses were obtained with a computer hologram designed for generating the Bessel beam and can be applied in femtosecond laser optics.
Bessel pulse beams and focus wave modes
Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 2001
Free-space propagation of ultrashort pulses is investigated. Space–time couplings are reduced for a particular form of beams that is termed a pulse beam, or a type 3 pulsed beam. General conditions for the formation of pulse beams in the paraxial approximation are presented. The free-space propagation of spatially localized ultrashort laser pulses is investigated. This treatment is based on a particular pulsed form of the well-known Bessel beam, which is termed a Bessel pulse beam. The connections with focus wave modes and X waves are discussed.
Optical versions of pulsed diffraction-free and spread-free waves are introduced and their peculiar physical properties are considered in detail. Possible applications such as suppression of ultrashort pulse broadening caused by group-velocity dispersion in a propagating medium and elimination of diffraction in a distant imaging are discussed and illustrated by computer simulations.
Ultrasmall bullets of light—focusing few-cycle light pulses to the diffraction limit
Optics Express, 2011
We demonstrate an essentially dispersion-free and diffraction-limited focusing of few-cycle laser pulses through all-reflective microscope objectives. By transmitting 6-fs-pulses from a Ti:sapphire oscillator through an all-reflective 0.5 NA objective, we reach a focus with a beam diameter of 1.0 µm, preserving the time structure of the pulses. The temporal and spatial pulse profile is recorded simultaneously using a novel tip-enhanced electron emission autocorrelator, indicating a focal volume of these pulses of only 1.8 µm 3 . We anticipate that the demonstrated technique is of considerable interest for inducing and probing optical nonlinearities of individual nanostructures.
Direct spatiotemporal measurements of accelerating ultrashort Bessel-type light bullets
Optics Express, 2009
We measure the spatiotemporal field of ultrashort pulses with complex spatiotemporal profiles using the linear-optical, interferometric pulse-measurement technique SEA TADPOLE. Accelerating and decelerating ultrashort, localized, nonspreading Bessel-X wavepackets were generated from a ~27 fs duration Ti:Sapphire oscillator pulse using a combination of an axicon and a convex or concave lens. The wavefields are measured with ~5 m spatial and ~15 fs temporal resolutions. Our experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical calculations and numerical simulations.
Airy–Bessel wave packets as versatile linear light bullets
Nature Photonics, 2010
The generation of spatiotemporal optical wave packets that are impervious to both dispersion and diffraction has been a fascinating challenge. Despite intense research activity, such localized waves, referred to as light bullets, have remained elusive. In nonlinear propagation, three-dimensional light bullets tend to disintegrate as a result of inherent instabilities. Three-dimensional wave packets that propagate linearly have been reported, but
Image formation of radially and temporally truncated Bessel beams
Lithuanian Journal of Physics, 2010
The Fourier-lens-formatted image of a radially truncated Bessel beam is theoretically calculated and compared with the experimentally measured results. A peculiarity -the weak central spot in the focused image of an apertured Bessel beam -has been recorded for the first time. Femtosecond-domain temporal evolution of the image of two types of superluminal localized wave packets -the so-called Bessel-X pulse and the focused X wave -is studied theoretically. For the Bessel-X pulse the aperture truncation leads to appearance of twin pulses in the image plane. In the case of the focused X wave, the ring changes its colour revealing the full bandwidth of the ultrashort wave packet.