Response time of an electron inside a molecule to light in strong-field ionization.

We study ionization of aligned H2+ in strong elliptically polarized laser fields numerically and analytically. The calculated offset angle in photoelectron momentum distribution is several degrees larger for the molecule than a model atom with similar ionization potential at diverse laser parameters. Using a strong-field model that considers the properties of multi-center and single-center Coulomb potentials, we are able to quantitatively reproduce this angle difference between the molecule and the atom. Further analyses based on this model show that the response time of electron to light which is encoded in the offset angle and is manifested as the time spent in tunneling ionization, is about 15 attoseconds longer for the molecule than the atom. This time difference is further enlarged when increasing the internuclear distance of the molecule.

Topological oscillated edge states in trimer lattices.

We investigate a 1D trimer optical lattice model. Two kinds of topological oscillating optical transmission phenomena at edges are shown. The exact and the approximate solutions of the system's edge states are obtained with and without the inversion symmetry for this system respectively. Based on the solutions, the existence and the periods of the oscillations can be controlled arbitrarily. Moreover, in a system without inversion symmetry, controlling the incident beam can eliminate both types of oscillations, resulting in a more stable edge state compared to the one with inversion symmetry. This prompts us to reconsider topological systems under symmetry protection.

Engineering of energy band and its impact on the light transmission in a non-reciprocal Hermitian hourglass lattice.

We study a quasi-one-dimensional non-reciprocal Hermitian hourglass photonic lattice that can accomplish multiple functions. Under the effect of non-reciprocal coupling, this lattice can produce an energy isolation effect, two kinds of flatbands, and energy band inversion. The excitation and propagation of a single energy band and multiple energy bands can be realized; in the flatband condition, the system has compact localized states, and the flatbands can be excited by a straightforward method. Our findings advance the theory of energy band regulation in artificial photonic lattices.

Two-color attosecond chronoscope.

We study ionization of atoms in strong orthogonal two-color (OTC) laser fields numerically and analytically. The calculated photoelectron momentum distribution shows two typical structures: a rectangular-like one and a shoulder-like one, the positions of which depend on the laser parameters. Using a strong-field model which allows us to quantitatively evaluate the Coulomb effect, we show that these two structures arise from attosecond response of electron inside an atom to light in OTC-induced photoemission. Some simple mappings between the locations of these structures and response time are derived. Through these mappings, we are able to establish a two-color attosecond chronoscope for timing electron emission, which is essential for OTC-based precise manipulation.

Three-dimensional force-tactile sensors based on embedded fiber Bragg gratings in anisotropic materials.

Three-dimensional force-tactile sensors have attracted much attention for their great potential in the applications of human-computer interaction and bionic intelligent robotics. Herein, a flexible haptic sensor based on dual fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) embedded in a bionic anisotropic material is proposed for the detection of 3D forces. To achieve the discrimination of normal and tangential force angles and magnitudes, FBGs were orthogonally embedded in a flexible silicone cylinder for force determination. Fe3O4 nanoparticles were used as a modifying agent to induce anisotropic elasticity of the silicone structure to improve the angle detection resolution. The results show that the flexible tactile sensor can detect the angle and magnitude of the 3D force.

Compact Harmonic Vernier Sensor Based on an In-Fiber FPI with Three Reflector System for Simultaneous Gas Pressure and Temperature Measurement.

In this work, we proposed a sensitivity-enhanced temperature sensor, a compact harmonic Vernier sensor based on an in-fiber Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI), with three reflective interfaces for the measurement of gas temperature and pressure. FPI consists of air and silica cavities formulated by single-mode optical fiber (SMF) and several short hollow core fiber segments. One of the cavity lengths is deliberately made larger to excite several harmonics of the Vernier effect that have different sensitivity magnifications to the gas pressure and temperature. The spectral curve could be demodulated using a digital bandpass filter to extract the interference spectrum according to the spatial frequencies of resonance cavities. The findings indicate that the material and structural properties of the resonance cavities have an impact on the respective temperature sensitivity and pressure sensitivity. The measured pressure sensitivity and temperature sensitivity of the proposed sensor are 114 nm/MPa and 176 pm/°C, respectively. Therefore, the proposed sensor combines ease of fabrication and high sensitivity, making it great potential for practical sensing measurements.

Imaginary coupling induced Dirac points and group velocity control in the non-reciprocal Hermitian lattice.

We propose a mechanism to achieve the group velocity control of bifurcation light via an imaginary coupling effect in the non-reciprocal lattice. The physical model is composed of two-layer photonic lattices with non-reciprocal coupling in each unit cell, which can support a real energy spectrum with a pair of Dirac points due to the hermicity. Furthermore, we show that the systems experience topological phase transition at the Dirac points, allowing the existence of topological edge states on the left or right boundaries of respective lattice layers. By adjusting the imaginary coupling and the wave number, the group velocity of the light wave can be manipulated, and bifurcation light transmission can be achieved both at the Dirac points and the condition without the group velocity dispersion. Our work might guide the design of photonic directional couplers with group velocity control functions.

Coulomb-induced ionization time lag after electrons tunnel out of a barrier.

After electrons tunnel out of a laser-Coulomb-formed barrier, the movement of the tunneling electron can be affected by the Coulomb potential. We show that this Coulomb effect induces a large time difference (longer than a hundred attoseconds) between the tunneling-out time at which the electron exits the barrier and the ionization time at which the electron is free. This large time difference has important influences on strong-field processes such as above-threshold ionization and high-harmonic generation, with remarkably changing time-frequency properties of electron trajectories. Some semi-quantitative evaluations on these influences are addressed, which provide new insight into strong-field processes and give suggestions on attosecond measurements.

Strong-field double ionization dynamics of vibrating HeH+ versus HeT.

We study double ionization (DI) dynamics of vibrating HeH+ versus its isotopic variant HeT+ in strong laser fields numerically. Our simulations show that for both cases, these two electrons in DI prefer to release together along the H(T) side. At the same time, however, the single ionization (SI) is preferred when the first electron escapes along the He side. This potential mechanism is attributed to the interplay of the rescattering of the first electron and the Coulomb induced large ionization time lag. On the other hand, the nuclear motion increases the contributions of these two electrons releasing together along the He side. This effect differentiates DI of HeH+ from HeT+.

Cascaded Fabry-Perot interferometer-regenerated fiber Bragg grating structure for temperature-strain measurement under extreme temperature conditions.

We demonstrated an optical fiber sensor based on a cascaded fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI)-regenerated fiber Bragg grating (RFBG) for simultaneous measurement of temperature and strain under high temperature environments. The FPI is manufactured from a ∼74 µm long hollow core silica tube (HCST) sandwiched between two single mode fibers (SMFs). The RFBG is inscribed in one of the SMF arms which is embedded inside an alundum tube, making it insensitive to the applied strain on the entire fiber sensor, just in case the temperature and strain recovery process are described using the strain-free RFBG instead of a characteristic due-parameter matrix. This feature is intended for thermal compensation for the FPI structure that is sensitive to both temperature and strain. In the characterization tests, the proposed device has exhibited a temperature sensitivity ∼ 18.01 pm/°C in the range of 100 °C - 1000 °C and excellent linear response to strain in the range of 300 °C - 1000 °C. The measured strain sensitivity is as high as ∼ 2.17 pm/µÉ› for a detection range from 0 µÉ› to 450 µÉ› at 800 °C, which is ∼ 1.5 times that of a FPI-RFBG without the alundum tube.

Optical rogue waves generated on Gaussian background beam.

We study optical rogue waves (RWs) in a nonlinear graded-index waveguide with variable coefficients. An exact RW solution on Gaussian background beam is presented, in contrast to the previous studies about RWs, on plane wave background. It is shown that the characteristics of RWs are maintained on Gaussian background beam and that the beam's width is even a bit smaller than the RWs scale. These results may raise the possibility of related experiments and potential applications in nonlinear optics.

Mechanisms of strong-field double ionization of Xe.

We perform a fully differential measurement on strong-field double ionization of Xe by 25 fs, 790 nm laser pulses in intensity region (0.4-3)×10(14) W/cm2. We observe that the two-dimensional correlation momentum spectra along the laser polarization direction show a nonstructured distribution for double ionization of Xe when decreasing the laser intensity from 3×10(14) to 4×10(13) W/cm2. The electron correlation behavior is remarkably different with the low-Z rare gases, i.e., He, Ne, and Ar. We find that the electron energy cutoffs increase from 2.9Up to 7.8Up when decreasing the laser intensities from the sequential double ionization to the nonsequential double ionization regime. The experimental observation indicates that multiple rescatterings play an important role for the generation of high energy photoelectrons. We have further studied the shielding effect on the strong-field double ionization of high-Z atoms.

Low yield of near-zero-momentum electrons and partial atomic stabilization in strong-field tunneling ionization.

We measure photoelectron angular distributions of single ionization of krypton and xenon atoms by laser pulses at 1320 nm, 0.2-1.0×10(14) W/cm(2), and observe that the yield of near-zero-momentum electrons in the strong-field tunneling ionization regime is significantly suppressed. Semiclassical simulations indicate that this local ionization suppression effect can be attributed to a fraction of the tunneled electrons that are released in a certain window of the initial field phase and transverse velocity are ejected into Rydberg elliptical orbits with a frequency much smaller than that of the laser; i.e., the corresponding atoms are stabilized. These electrons with high-lying atomic orbits are thus prevented from ionization, resulting in the substantially reduced near-zero-momentum electron yield. The refined transition between the Rydberg states of the stabilized atoms has implication on the THz radiation from gas targets in strong laser fields.

Rogue-wave pattern transition induced by relative frequency.

We revisit a rogue wave in a two-mode nonlinear fiber whose dynamics is described by two-component coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations. The relative frequency between two modes can induce different rogue wave patterns transition. In particular, we find a four-petaled flower structure rogue wave can exist in the two-mode coupled system, which possesses an asymmetric spectrum distribution. Furthermore, spectrum analysis is performed on these different type rogue waves, and the spectrum relations between them are discussed. We demonstrate qualitatively that different modulation instability gain distribution can induce different rogue wave excitation patterns. These results would deepen our understanding of rogue wave dynamics in complex systems.