Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 24
  • Item
    Femtosecond Field‐Driven On‐Chip Unidirectional Electronic Currents in Nonadiabatic Tunneling Regime
    (Weinheim : Wiley VCH, 2021) Shi, Liping; Babushkin, Ihar; Husakou, Anton; Melchert, Oliver; Frank, Bettina; Yi, Juemin; Wetzel, Gustav; Demircan, Ayhan; Lienau, Christoph; Giessen, Harald; Ivanov, Misha; Morgner, Uwe; Kovacev, Milutin
    Recently, asymmetric plasmonic nanojunctions have shown promise as on-chip electronic devices to convert femtosecond optical pulses to current bursts, with a bandwidth of multi-terahertz scale, although yet at low temperatures and pressures. Such nanoscale devices are of great interest for novel ultrafast electronics and opto-electronic applications. Here, the device is operated in air and at room temperature, revealing the mechanisms of photoemission from plasmonic nanojunctions, and the fundamental limitations on the speed of optical-to-electronic conversion. Inter-cycle interference of coherent electronic wavepackets results in a complex energy electron distribution and birth of multiphoton effects. This energy structure, as well as reshaping of the wavepackets during their propagation from one tip to the other, determine the ultrafast dynamics of the current. It is shown that, up to some level of approximation, the electron flight time is well-determined by the mean ponderomotive velocity in the driving field.
  • Item
    Stability of quantum linear logic circuits against perturbations
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2020) Babushkin, Ihar; Morgner, Uwe; Demircan, Ayhan
    Here we study transformation of waveshapes of photons under the action of the linear logic circuits and other related architectures involving only linear optical networks and measurements. We show that the gates are working well not only in the case when all photons are separable and located in the same mode, but in some more general cases. For instance, the photonic waveshapes are allowed to be slightly different in different channels; in this case, Zeno effect prevents the photons from decoherence after the measurement, and the gate thus remains neutral to the small waveshape perturbations. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK
  • Item
    Onset of Bloch oscillations in the almost-strong-field regime
    ([London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2022-12-13) Reislöhner, Jan; Kim, Doyeong; Babushkin, Ihar; Pfeiffer, Adrian N.
    In the field of high-order harmonic generation from solids, the electron motion typically exceeds the edge of the first Brillouin zone. In conventional nonlinear optics, on the other hand, the excursion of band electrons is negligible. Here, we investigate the transition from conventional nonlinear optics to the regime where the crystal electrons begin to explore the first Brillouin zone. It is found that the nonlinear optical response changes abruptly already before intraband currents due to ionization become dominant. This is observed by an interference structure in the third-order harmonic generation of few-cycle pulses in a non-collinear geometry. Although approaching Keldysh parameter γ = 1, this is not a strong-field effect in the original sense, because the iterative series still converges and reproduces the interference structure. The change of the nonlinear interband response is attributed to Bloch motion of the reversible (or transient or virtual) population, similar to the Bloch motion of the irreversible (or real) population which affects the intraband currents that have been observed in high-order harmonic generation.
  • Item
    The Effect of Chirp on Pulse Compression at a Group Velocity Horizon
    (New York, NY : IEEE, 2016) Babushkin, Ihar; Amiranashvili, Shalva; Bree, Carsten; Morgner, Uwe; Steinmeyer, Gunter; Demircan, Ayhan
    Group-velocity matched cross-phase modulation between a fundamental soliton and a dispersive wave packet has been previously suggested for optical switching applications similar to an optical transistor. Moreover, the nonlinear interaction in the resulting group-velocity horizon can be exploited for adiabatic compression of the soliton down into the few-cycle regime. Here, we study the delicate phase- and frequency-matching mechanism of soliton/dispersive wave interaction by controlling the input chirp of the dispersive wave. We demonstrate that such a modification of the dispersive wave can significantly alter the soliton dynamics. In particular, we show that it allows a decrease of the fiber length needed for the best compression and, to some extent, control of the trajectory of the soliton. The mechanism of such an influence is related to the modification of the phase-matching condition between the soliton and dispersive wave.
  • Item
    All-optical supercontinuum switching
    (London : Springer Nature, 2020) Melchert, Oliver; Brée, Carsten; Tajalli, Ayhan; Pape, Alexander; Arkhipov, Rostislav; Willms, Stephanie; Babushkin, Ihar; Skryabin, Dmitry; Steinmeyer, Günter; Morgner, Uwe; Demircan, Ayhan
    Efficient all-optical switching is a challenging task as photons are bosons and cannot immediately interact with each other. Consequently, one has to resort to nonlinear optical interactions, with the Kerr gate being the classical example. However, the latter requires strong pulses to switch weaker ones. Numerous approaches have been investigated to overcome the resulting lack of fan-out capability of all-optical switches, most of which relied on types of resonant enhancement of light-matter interaction. Here we experimentally demonstrate a novel approach that utilizes switching between different portions of soliton fission induced supercontinua, exploiting an optical event horizon. This concept enables a high switching efficiency and contrast in a dissipation free setting. Our approach enables fan-out, does not require critical biasing, and is at least partially cascadable. Controlling complex soliton dynamics paves the way towards building all-optical logic gates with advanced functionalities. © 2020, The Author(s).
  • Item
    Transient pulse compression at a group velocity horizon
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2015) Babushkin, Ihar; Amiranashvili, Shalva; Brée, Carsten; Morgner, Uwe; Steinmeyer, Günter; Demircan, Ayhan
    Group-velocity matched cross-phase modulation between a fundamental soliton and a dispersive wave-packet has been previously suggested for optical switching applications similar to an optical transistor. Moreover, the nonlinear interaction in the resulting groupvelocity horizon can be exploited for adiabatic compression of the soliton down into the fewcycle regime. Here we show that both mechanisms can be combined. In such a transient compressor, parameters of the dispersive wave may then serve to actively control the soliton compression and adjust the pulse duration in the presence of disturbances. While a certain amount of control is already enabled by the delay between soliton and dispersive wave, the means of controlling the compression process are substantially enhanced by additionally manipulating the chirp of the dispersive wave. Moreover, controlling the chirp of the dispersive wave also enables correction for limitations of the compression scheme due to a self-frequency shift of the soliton or for uncompensated dispersion in the scheme. This substantially widens the practicality of the compression scheme and other applications of the highly efficient nonlinear interaction at the group-velocity horizon.
  • Item
    Transient radiation from a circular string of dipoles excited at superluminal velocity
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2014) Arkhipov, Rostislav M.; Arkhipov, Mikhail V.; Babushkin, Ihar; Tolmachev, Yurii A.
    This paper discusses the features of transient radiation from periodic one-dimensional resonant medium excited by ultrashort pulse. The case of circular geometry is considered for the harmonic distribution of the density of the particles along the circle. It is shown that a new frequency component arises in the spectrum of the scattered radiation in addition to the resonance frequency of medium. The new frequency appears both in the case of linear and nonlinear interaction, its value depends on the velocity of excitation pulse propagation and on the period of spatial modulation. In addition, the case when excitation moves at superluminal velocity and Cherenkov radiation arises is also studied.
  • Item
    Transient Cherenkov radiation from an inhomogeneous string excited by an ultrashort laser pulse at superluminal velocity
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2013) Arkhipov, Rostislav; Babushkin, Ihar; Lebedev, Mikhail K.; Tolmachev, Yurii A.; Arkhipov, Mikhail V.
    An optical response of one-dimensional string made of dipoles with a periodically varying density excited by a spot of light moving along the string at superluminal (sub-luminal) velocity is studied. We consider in details the spectral and temporal dynamics of the Cherenkov radiation, which occurs in such system in the transient regime. We point out the resonance character of radiation and the appearance of a new Doppler-like frequency in the spectrum of the transient Cherenkov radiation. Possible applications of the effect as well as different string topologies are discussed.
  • Item
    The fundamental solution of unidirectional pulse propagation equation
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2013) Babushkin, Ihar
    In the article the fundamental solution of a variant of the three-dimensional wave equation known as unidirectional pulse propagation equation (UPPE) and its paraxial approximation is obtained. It is shown that the fundamental solution can be presented as a projection of a fundamental solution of the wave equation to some functional subspace. We discuss the degree of equivalence of the UPPE and the wave equation in this respect. In particular, we show that the UPPE, in contrast to the widespread belief, describes the wave propagation in both directions simultaneously, and remark non-causal character of its solutions
  • Item
    Population difference gratings created on vibrational transitions by nonoverlapping subcycle THz pulses
    ([London] : Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, 2021) Arkhipov, Rostislav; Pakhomov, Anton; Arkhipov, Mikhail; Babushkin, Ihar; Demircan, Ayhan; Morgner, Uwe; Rosanov, Nikolay
    We study theoretically a possibility of creation and ultrafast control (erasing, spatial frequency multiplication) of population density gratings in a multi-level resonant medium having a resonance transition frequency in the THz range. These gratings are produced by subcycle THz pulses coherently interacting with a nonlinear medium, without any need for pulses to overlap, thereby utilizing an indirect pulse interaction via an induced coherent polarization grating. High values of dipole moments of the transitions in the THz range facilitate low field strength of the needed THz excitation. Our results clearly show this possibility in multi-level resonant media. Our theoretical approach is based on an approximate analytical solution of time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) using perturbation theory. Remarkably, as we show here, quasi-unipolar subcycle pulses allow more efficient excitation of higher quantum levels, leading to gratings with a stronger modulation depth. Numerical simulations, performed for THz resonances of the H20 molecule using Bloch equations for density matrix elements, are in agreement with analytical results in the perturbative regime. In the strong-field non-perturbative regime, the spatial shape of the gratings becomes non-harmonic. A possibility of THz radiation control using such gratings is discussed. The predicted phenomena open novel avenues in THz spectroscopy of molecules with unipolar and quasi-unipolar THz light bursts and allow for better control of ultra-short THz pulses.