In this paper, we first present an experimental demonstration of terahertz radiation pulse generation with energy up to 5 pJ under the electron emission during ultrafast optical discharge of a vacuum photodiode. We use a femtosecond optical excitation of metallic copper photocathode for the generation of ultrashort electron bunch and up to 45 kV/cm external electric field for the photo-emitted electron acceleration. Measurements of terahertz pulses energy as a function of emitted charge density, incidence angle of optical radiation and applied electric field have been provided. Spectral and polarization characteristics of generated terahertz pulses have also been studied. The proposed semi-analytical model and simulations in COMSOL Multiphysics prove the experimental data and allow for the optimization of experimental conditions aimed at flexible control of radiation parameters.

An O-shaped structure at wavelengths of 930–960 nm in the frequency–angular spectrum of the supercontinuum generated during the filamentation of a femtosecond laser pulse with a central wavelength of 740 nm on a 75-m path in air has been observed experimentally. This feature of the frequency–angular spectrum is due to the presence of the absorption band of water vapor in the range of 930–960 nm and the anomalous dispersion region associated with this absorption. This result opens prospects for the remote single-pulse detection of impurities in air.

An experimental study of laser pulse duration influence on the terahertz emission during single-color filamentation is carried out. It is shown that for each terahertz frequency there is an optimal laser pulse duration providing maximal generation at constant pulse energy. It is demonstrated that longer pulses are required for stronger low-frequency terahertz emission, thus despite considerable laser peak power decreasing the terahertz radiation yield can be increased by more than 3 times.

We propose an easy but effective approach to find a transition numerical aperture between the regimes of laser pulse filamentation with nonlinear focusing and with geometric focusing predominance. The suggested method based on the beam profile measurements allows correction of the data provided by spectra measurements. Using a simple semi-analytical model, we study the dependence of the transition numerical aperture on the pulse power and medium nonlinearity. The analysis shows that in condensed media the transition from the nonlinear to geometric focusing regime occurs at much tighter focusing than in air. Moreover, if the medium nonlinear refractive index is high enough, only the nonlinear focusing regime is observed even at numerical apertures close to one, which allows symmetric plasma channel formation.

We measured and simulated the spectrally resolved angular distributions of 0.3–1-THz emission from the two-color filament with its plasma length (∼40 mm) exceeding the dephasing length (∼25 mm) between the fundamental (740 nm) and the second harmonic (370 nm) pulses in air. We show that only the forwardly propagating on-axis terahertz (THz) radiation is sensitive to the variation of the phase offset φ between fundamental and second harmonics, while the ring-like THz beam carrying ≳80% of the overall THz yield is independent of φ. Utilization of the THz ring allows one to omit the tedious adjustment of the frequency-doubling crystal position in the experiment.

The simple mid-IR laser source based on femtosecond Ti:Sapphire laser and successive frequency conversion of its stretched up to 50 ps pulses in SrMoO4 Raman-active crystal and LiGaS2 second order nonlinear crystal is demonstrated. Energy of the mid-IR pulse at 11.4 mu m wavelength was up to 250 nJ that was four times higher than the previous results for the similar setup. The influence of pump pulse intensity on spectral and energetic parameters of laser pulses after SrMoO4 and LiGaS2 crystals were studied in details.

We experimentally demonstrate that terahertz emission yield from single-color filament plasma can be increased by more than 3 times by ordinary laser pulse chirping at constant energy. The enhancement is spectrally selective, for each terahertz frequency there is an optimal laser pulse duration providing maximal terahertz emission. This provides a prospective tool for tailoring both spectrum and energy of the terahertz emission from a single-color filament.

Filamentation of high-power femtosecond laser pulses in air is accompanied by a fairly strong release of optical energy into the propagation medium due to laser-induced ionization of air molecules and production of an underdense plasma of charged species. We present the results of our laboratory experiments and numerical simulations aimed at estimating the energy deposition amount by laser filament upon propagation in air depending on the conditions of spatial focusing, pulse energy, and radiation wavelength. Importantly, our study reveals a more than 50% decrease in the filament energy deposited in air in the range of moderate numerical aperture values, approximately from 0.003 to 0.007, at carrier wavelengths of 740 and 470 nm. We attribute such a considerable reduction in the laser pulse energy release for femtosecond plasma to the competing effects of Kerr self-focusing and geometric divergence of focused laser pulse.

The two-dimensional angular distributions of terahertz radiation at various frequencies emitted from the plasma of a single-color filament are obtained under different experimental conditions. It is shown that the radiation pattern at each terahertz frequency weakly depends on the laser beam numerical aperture and pulse energy. Increasing the laser pulse energy leads to the growth in the terahertz emission energy, including in the multiple filamentation regime. Furthermore, over the entire range of considered pulse energies, the dependence is close to linear for different terahertz frequencies and various laser beam numerical apertures. Our results allow to scale the terahertz emission from single-color filament in spectroscopy and other applications.

Приводятся экспериментально полученные двумерные распределения терагерцового излучения, генерация которого осуществляется одним и четырьмя филаментами, формируемыми фазовыми оптическими элементами. Продемонстрировано, что применение фазовой маски примерно в полтора раза уменьшает углы распространения терагерцового пучка, что обусловленно интерференцией терагерцового излучения от четырех источников. Применение решетки Дамманна эти углы несколько увеличивает.

Different types of ultrafast radiative transitions are considered. The most interesting among them is the case when the radiative transition is accelerated by the configurational transformation of a structural unit where it occurs. Impurity-induced VUV excitation bands of doped Li2B4O7 are attributed to the creation of impurity-bound excitons. When Mn2+ is involved into exciton recombination, the radiative transition in the Mn2+ 3d5 configuration is accelerated and occurs on a sub-nanosecond time scale. Excitation within the UV bands is connected with energy transfer from the structural units formed by the sensitizers (Cu, Sn) and oxygen to Mn2+. In this case, Mn2+ transitions are not accelerated since its excited state appears after complete relaxation of excitation in the corresponding sensitizer’s unit. Pulsed cathodoluminescence decays are rather slow due to very slow transport of electron–hole pairs and excitons in Li2B4O7.

We have experimentally obtained two-dimensional distributions of terahertz radiation generated by one or four filaments formed by phase optical elements in air. It has been demonstrated that the use of the phase mask reduces the propagation angles of terahertz beam by approximately one and a half times, which is due to the interference of terahertz radiation from four sources. The use of the Dammann grating slightly enlarges these angles.

At the selected frequencies from 0.3 to 10 THz we measured the two-dimensional (2D) distributions of fluence and polarization of terahertz (THz) emission from a single-color femtosecond filament. At the majority of frequencies studied, the THz beam has a donut-like shape with azimuthal modulations and radial polarization. At the maximal modulation, THz beam takes the form of the two lobes and polarization of the THz field degenerates into orthogonal to the laser pulse polarization direction. Violation of the radially polarized donut beam shape is due to destructive interference of THz waves driven by light pressure directed along the laser beam propagation axis and ponderomotive force parallel to the laser polarization.

The beam self-cleaning phenomenon is theoretically predicted by the two-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which describes self-focusing, and is observed in the case of femtosecond laser filamentation in the collimated regime of propagation. However, the impact of external focusing on the self-cleaning has not been investigated so far. In this paper we systematically study this impact in a wide range of focusing conditions. We show that the energy range, in which self-cleaning can be observed, shrinks monotonically with the numerical aperture growth at some point vanishing at all.

The spectrum of terahertz radiation generated in plasma of a single-color laser filament is observed, using a new technique based on obtaining two-dimensional angular distributions at different frequencies. It is shown that the maximum of the spectrum occurs in the low-frequency region for different laser pump focusing conditions. It is demonstrated that with the initial beam numerical aperture growth the generation of terahertz radiation at high frequencies increases more intensely compared to low frequencies.

The terahertz (THz) radiation emitted by an air-based femtosecond filament biased by a static electric field is known to have on-axis shape and relatively low frequency spectrum in contrast to the unbiased single-color and two-color schemes. Here, we measure the THz emission of a 15-kV/cm-biased filament in air produced by a 740-nm, 1.8-mJ, 90-fs pulse and demonstrate that a flat-top on-axis THz angular distribution of the emission at 0.5-1 THz transforms into a contrast ring-shaped one at 10 THz.

We study the angular distributions of various spectral components of terahertz radiation generated in an air plasma of a single-color filament with a laser wavelength of 930 nm. It is experimentally shown that at a 20-fold excess over the critical power for self-focusing the distribution of terahertz radiation at all studied frequencies is unimodal. The obtained pattern differs significantly from the angular distribution of terahertz radiation observed in the case of filamentation of pulses with a shorter wavelength.

Transient stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) of chirped, temporally stretched up to 45 ps, Ti:sapphire laser pulses was studied in three different Raman-active crystals (BaWO4, SrMoO4 and Ca-3(VO4)(2)) at the same experimental conditions. BaWO4 and SrMoO4 crystals had the same SRS ''threshold'' energy/intensity, which was associated with their similar integrated cross sections for spontaneous Raman scattering. The highest energy SRS efficiency was obtained in SrMoO4 crystal and reached 8%, which was two-times higher than one in BaWO4. Higher SRS efficiency in SrMoO4 was observed due to lower nonlinear absorption. The Ca-3(VO4)(2) crystal had significantly higher SRS ''threshold'' and lower efficiency despite the lowest nonlinear absorption losses. A simple expression of exponential gain for transient SRS of chirped laser pulses was proposed and verified by comparison with experimental results. This expression was used to estimate dephasing time T-2 of Ca-3(VO4)(2) crystal which was 8.5 +/- 1.0 ps.