Work

Ultrashort Tilted-Pulse-Front Pulses and Nonparaxial Tilted-Phase-Front Beams

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: Electromagnetic pulses with tilted pulse fronts are instrumental in enhancing the efficiency of many light–matter interaction processes, with prominent examples including terahertz generation by optical rectification, dielectric laser acceleration, ultrafast electron imaging, and X-ray generation from free electron lasers. Here, we find closed-form expressions for tilted-pulse-front pulses that capture their exact propagation dynamics even in deeply nonparaxial and sub-single-cycle regimes. By studying the zero-bandwidth counterparts of these pulses, we further obtain classes of nondiffracting wavepackets whose phase fronts are tilted with respect to the direction of travel of the intensity peak. The intensity profiles of these nonparaxial nondiffracting wavepackets move at a constant velocity that can be much greater than or much less than the speed of light, and can even travel backward relative to the direction of phase front propagation.

Source: ACS Photonics

DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.7b00464

Authors: Liang Jie Wong, Ido Kaminer

Institutions: Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Science and Engineering Research Council, FP7 People: Marie-Curie Actions

Awards: G6068704332, G8154750129