Applications of anomalous diffraction systems, generation of attosecond electron and photon pulses and Raman amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
Abstract
Anomalous diffraction is scattering process due to phase distortion introduced on incident phase front by scattering object. Phase mask or hologram, Christiansen filter, PDLC are examples of an anomalously diffracting systems. Phase hologram modulates an input wavefront to produce a wavefront which when Fourier transformed using a converging lens gives desired image on to a screen. We made a nonlinear optical element using phase mask made up of nonlinear material. It forms a lens because of nonlinear index of refraction when a high intensity beam is incident. This lens Fourier transforms the phase mask and images the phase mask. This nonlinear optical element can be used for various applications like image gating and 3-D memory writing and read out. Christiansen filter (CF) is a two component scattering system whose dispersion curves intersect at certain wavelength. Thus light corresponding to this wavelength traverses the filter without any scattering and light at other wavelengths gets scattered. This results in narrow wavelength dependent transmission curve centered at the index matching wavelength. When materials with an intensity dependent refractive index are used to make a CF, the index matching condition of CF becomes function of the input intensity resulting in intensity dependent beam size and transmittance through the filter. This property of nonlinear CF can be used to switch beam optically in both self and cross-modulation modes. Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) is dispersion of liquid crystal droplets in polymer whose index of refraction is same as ordinary refractive index of liquid crystal. PDLC shows voltage dependent scattering and are used in flat panel displays. We used this element as voltage controlled intracavity loss element in a laser cavity to make a lasing pixel projection display. Output of this pixel shows all desired properties for a projection display like narrow linewidth, high brightness, TTL switching compatibility and efficient delivery of this power to the screen. We describe a method based on optical rectification to create an electron acceleration process which can act simultaneously on a femtosecond photo-electron pulse as well as cancel space-charge effects. This method can be used to produce attosecond electron and photon pulses. Narrow linewidth high intensity tunable light pulses are very useful for applications such as spectroscopic studies and remote sensing. Tunable lasers and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) process are commonly used for this purpose. SRS process has high threshold because of small spontaneous Raman scattering cross-sections. We combined amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from dye molecules with SRS process in solvent molecules in which dye molecules are dissolved. ASE seeds SRS process and SRS peak is further amplified by stimulated emission gain. We got amplifications ~100 over SRS from pure solvent. This peak can be tuned over gain bandwidth of dye molecules.
- Publication:
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Ph.D. Thesis
- Pub Date:
- October 1998
- Bibcode:
- 1998PhDT........40V
- Keywords:
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- Physics: Optics