Three decades ago,a highly nonlinear nonpertubative phenomenon,now well-known as the high harmonic generation(HHG),was discovered when intense laser irradiates gaseous atoms.As the HHG produces broadband coherent radi...Three decades ago,a highly nonlinear nonpertubative phenomenon,now well-known as the high harmonic generation(HHG),was discovered when intense laser irradiates gaseous atoms.As the HHG produces broadband coherent radiation,it becomes the most promising source to obtain attosecond pulses.The door to the attosecond science was opened ever since.In this review,we will revisit the incredible adventure to the attoworld.Firstly,the progress of attosecond pulse generation is outlined.Then,we introduce the efforts on imaging the structures or filming the ultrafast dynamics of nuclei and electrons with unprecedented attosecond temporal and Angstrom spatial resolutions,utilizing the obtained attosecond pulses as well as the high harmonic spectrum itself.展开更多
The Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 1.064 μm was used to generate plasmas on a high-purity solid ytterbium(70 Yb) target in a vacuum chamber. The soft x-ray time-and space-integration spectra from the Yb plasmas we...The Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 1.064 μm was used to generate plasmas on a high-purity solid ytterbium(70 Yb) target in a vacuum chamber. The soft x-ray time-and space-integration spectra from the Yb plasmas were measured in the wavelength range of 1.0–8.5 nm under different power densities. The atomic spectral data of the unresolved transition arrays from highly charged Yb ions were calculated based on Cowan's suite of codes, including configuration interaction. The calculated Gaussian envelope of the emission determined by the weighted spontaneous transition rates was compared with the experimental spectra, and a good agreement between them was obtained. The spatial-temporal evolutions of the plasmas under the experimental conditions are simulated based on the collisional-radiative model, enabling the understanding of the mechanism of the plasma conditions for optimal water window waveband emission output.展开更多
Coherent superposition of electronic states induces attosecond electron motion in molecules.We theoretically investigate the strong-field ionization of this superposition state by numerically solving the time-dependen...Coherent superposition of electronic states induces attosecond electron motion in molecules.We theoretically investigate the strong-field ionization of this superposition state by numerically solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation.In the obtained photoelectron momentum distribution,an intriguing bifurcation structure appears in the strong-field holographic interference pattern.We demonstrate that this bifurcation structure directly provides complete information about the status of the transient wave function of the superposition state:the horizontal location of the bifurcation in the momentum distribution reveals the relative phase of the involved components of the superposition state and the vertical position indicates the relative coefficient.Thus,this bifurcation structure takes a snapshot of the transient electron wave packet of the superposition state and provides an intuitive way to monitor electron motion in molecules.展开更多
The high-resolution three-dimensional photoelectron momentum distributions via above-threshold ionization(ATI)of Xe atoms are measured in an intense near circularly polarized laser field using velocity map imaging and...The high-resolution three-dimensional photoelectron momentum distributions via above-threshold ionization(ATI)of Xe atoms are measured in an intense near circularly polarized laser field using velocity map imaging and tomography reconstruction. Compared to the linearly polarized laser field, the employed near circularly polarized laser field imposes a more strict selection rule for the transition via resonant excitation, and therefore we can selectively enhance the resonant ATI through certain atomic Rydberg states. Our results show the self-reference ionization delay, which is determined from the difference between the measured streaking angles for nonadiabatic ATI via the 4 f and 5 f Rydberg states, is 45.6 as. Our method provides an accessible route to highlight the role of resonant transition between selected states, which will pave the way for fully understanding the ionization dynamics toward manipulating electron motion as well as reaction in an ultrafast time scale.展开更多
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.12021004 and 91950202)
文摘Three decades ago,a highly nonlinear nonpertubative phenomenon,now well-known as the high harmonic generation(HHG),was discovered when intense laser irradiates gaseous atoms.As the HHG produces broadband coherent radiation,it becomes the most promising source to obtain attosecond pulses.The door to the attosecond science was opened ever since.In this review,we will revisit the incredible adventure to the attoworld.Firstly,the progress of attosecond pulse generation is outlined.Then,we introduce the efforts on imaging the structures or filming the ultrafast dynamics of nuclei and electrons with unprecedented attosecond temporal and Angstrom spatial resolutions,utilizing the obtained attosecond pulses as well as the high harmonic spectrum itself.
基金support from Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (No. 2019B030302003)Hubei Key Laboratory of Optical Information and Pattern Recognition open fund (No. 201908)。
文摘The Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 1.064 μm was used to generate plasmas on a high-purity solid ytterbium(70 Yb) target in a vacuum chamber. The soft x-ray time-and space-integration spectra from the Yb plasmas were measured in the wavelength range of 1.0–8.5 nm under different power densities. The atomic spectral data of the unresolved transition arrays from highly charged Yb ions were calculated based on Cowan's suite of codes, including configuration interaction. The calculated Gaussian envelope of the emission determined by the weighted spontaneous transition rates was compared with the experimental spectra, and a good agreement between them was obtained. The spatial-temporal evolutions of the plasmas under the experimental conditions are simulated based on the collisional-radiative model, enabling the understanding of the mechanism of the plasma conditions for optimal water window waveband emission output.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11874163,11604108,and 11604388)the Program for HUST Academic Frontier Youth Teamthe Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China(HUST No.2017KFXKJC002)。
文摘Coherent superposition of electronic states induces attosecond electron motion in molecules.We theoretically investigate the strong-field ionization of this superposition state by numerically solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation.In the obtained photoelectron momentum distribution,an intriguing bifurcation structure appears in the strong-field holographic interference pattern.We demonstrate that this bifurcation structure directly provides complete information about the status of the transient wave function of the superposition state:the horizontal location of the bifurcation in the momentum distribution reveals the relative phase of the involved components of the superposition state and the vertical position indicates the relative coefficient.Thus,this bifurcation structure takes a snapshot of the transient electron wave packet of the superposition state and provides an intuitive way to monitor electron motion in molecules.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11574101,11674116,11774111,and 11934006)the Open Fund of Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Information and Pattern Recognition(Grant No.201902)the International Cooperation Program of Hubei Innovation Fund(Grant No.2019AHB052)。
文摘The high-resolution three-dimensional photoelectron momentum distributions via above-threshold ionization(ATI)of Xe atoms are measured in an intense near circularly polarized laser field using velocity map imaging and tomography reconstruction. Compared to the linearly polarized laser field, the employed near circularly polarized laser field imposes a more strict selection rule for the transition via resonant excitation, and therefore we can selectively enhance the resonant ATI through certain atomic Rydberg states. Our results show the self-reference ionization delay, which is determined from the difference between the measured streaking angles for nonadiabatic ATI via the 4 f and 5 f Rydberg states, is 45.6 as. Our method provides an accessible route to highlight the role of resonant transition between selected states, which will pave the way for fully understanding the ionization dynamics toward manipulating electron motion as well as reaction in an ultrafast time scale.
