Laser amplification in excited dielectrics

Thomas Winkler; Lasse Haahr-Lillevang; Cristian Sarpe; Bastian Zielinski; Nadine Goette; Arne Senftleben; Peter Balling; Thomas Baumert

doi:10.1038/NPHYS4265

Laser amplification in excited dielectrics

Thomas Winkler^*, Lasse Haahr-Lillevang, Cristian Sarpe, Bastian Zielinski, Nadine Goette, Arne Senftleben, Peter Balling, Thomas Baumert

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

42 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Wide-bandgap dielectrics such as glasses or water are transparent at visible and infrared wavelengths. This changes when they are exposed to ultrashort and highly intense laser pulses. Different interaction mechanisms lead to the appearance of various transient nonlinear optical phenomena. Using these, the optical properties of dielectrics can be controlled from the transparent to the metal-like state. Here we expand this range by a yet unexplored mechanism in excited dielectrics: amplification. In a two-colour pump-probe experiment, we show that a 400nm femtosecond laser pulse is coherently amplified inside an excited sapphire sample on a scale of a few micrometres. Simulations strongly support the proposed two-photon stimulated emission process, which is temporally and spatially controllable. Consequently, we expect applications in all fields that demand strongly localized amplification.

Original language	English
Journal	Nature Physics
Volume	14
Issue	1
Pages (from-to)	74-79
Number of pages	6
ISSN	1745-2473
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/NPHYS4265
Publication status	Published - Jan 2018

Keywords

PULSES
ABLATION
DYNAMICS
SILICON

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title = "Laser amplification in excited dielectrics",

abstract = "Wide-bandgap dielectrics such as glasses or water are transparent at visible and infrared wavelengths. This changes when they are exposed to ultrashort and highly intense laser pulses. Different interaction mechanisms lead to the appearance of various transient nonlinear optical phenomena. Using these, the optical properties of dielectrics can be controlled from the transparent to the metal-like state. Here we expand this range by a yet unexplored mechanism in excited dielectrics: amplification. In a two-colour pump-probe experiment, we show that a 400nm femtosecond laser pulse is coherently amplified inside an excited sapphire sample on a scale of a few micrometres. Simulations strongly support the proposed two-photon stimulated emission process, which is temporally and spatially controllable. Consequently, we expect applications in all fields that demand strongly localized amplification.",

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AU - Winkler, Thomas

AU - Haahr-Lillevang, Lasse

AU - Sarpe, Cristian

AU - Zielinski, Bastian

AU - Goette, Nadine

AU - Senftleben, Arne

AU - Balling, Peter

AU - Baumert, Thomas

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N2 - Wide-bandgap dielectrics such as glasses or water are transparent at visible and infrared wavelengths. This changes when they are exposed to ultrashort and highly intense laser pulses. Different interaction mechanisms lead to the appearance of various transient nonlinear optical phenomena. Using these, the optical properties of dielectrics can be controlled from the transparent to the metal-like state. Here we expand this range by a yet unexplored mechanism in excited dielectrics: amplification. In a two-colour pump-probe experiment, we show that a 400nm femtosecond laser pulse is coherently amplified inside an excited sapphire sample on a scale of a few micrometres. Simulations strongly support the proposed two-photon stimulated emission process, which is temporally and spatially controllable. Consequently, we expect applications in all fields that demand strongly localized amplification.

AB - Wide-bandgap dielectrics such as glasses or water are transparent at visible and infrared wavelengths. This changes when they are exposed to ultrashort and highly intense laser pulses. Different interaction mechanisms lead to the appearance of various transient nonlinear optical phenomena. Using these, the optical properties of dielectrics can be controlled from the transparent to the metal-like state. Here we expand this range by a yet unexplored mechanism in excited dielectrics: amplification. In a two-colour pump-probe experiment, we show that a 400nm femtosecond laser pulse is coherently amplified inside an excited sapphire sample on a scale of a few micrometres. Simulations strongly support the proposed two-photon stimulated emission process, which is temporally and spatially controllable. Consequently, we expect applications in all fields that demand strongly localized amplification.

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KW - ABLATION

KW - DYNAMICS

KW - SILICON

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Laser amplification in excited dielectrics

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