We report on a vortex laser chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) system that delivers pulses with a peak power of 45 TW. A focused intensity exceeding 10¹⁹ W/cm² has been demonstrated for the first time by the vortex amplification scheme. Compared with other schemes of strong-field vortex generation with high energy flux but narrowband vortex-converting elements at the end of the laser, an important advantage of our scheme is that we can use a broadband but size-limited q-plate to realize broadband mode-converting in the front end of the CPA system, and achieve high-power amplification with a series of amplifiers. This method is low cost and can be easily implemented in an existing laser system. The results have verified the feasibility to obtain terawatt and even petawatt vortex laser amplification by a CPA system, which has important potential applications in strong-field laser physics, for example, generation of vortex particle beams with orbital angular momentum, fast ignition for inertial confinement fusion and simulation of the extreme astrophysical environment.

We report a framing imaging based on noncollinear optical parametric amplification (NCOPA), named FINCOPA, which applies NCOPA for the first time to single-shot ultrafast optical imaging. In an experiment targeting a laser-induced air plasma grating, FINCOPA achieved 50 fs-resolved optical imaging with a spatial resolution of ～83 lp / mm and an effective frame rate of 10 trillion frames per second (Tfps). It has also successfully visualized an ultrafast rotating optical field with an effective frame rate of 15 Tfps. FINCOPA has simultaneously a femtosecond-level temporal resolution and frame interval and a micrometer-level spatial resolution. Combining outstanding spatial and temporal resolutions with an ultrahigh frame rate, FINCOPA will contribute to high-spatiotemporal resolution observations of ultrafast transient events, such as atomic or molecular dynamics in photonic materials, plasma physics, and laser inertial-confinement fusion.

Ultra-intense femtosecond vortex pulses can provide an opportunity to investigate the new phenomena with orbital angular momentum (OAM) involved in extreme cases. This paper reports a high gain optical vortex amplifier for intense femtosecond vortex pulses generation. Traditional regeneration amplifiers can offer high gain for Gaussian mode pulses but cannot amplify optical vortex pulses while maintaining the phase singularity because of mode competition. Here, we present a regeneration amplifier with a ring-shaped pump. By controlling the radius of the pump, the system can realize the motivation of the Laguerre–Gaussian [LG0,1(?1)] mode and the suppression of the Gaussian mode. Without seeds, the amplifier has a donut-shaped output containing two opposite OAM states simultaneously, as our prediction by simulation. If seeded by a pulse of a topologic charge of 1 or ?1, the system will output an amplified LG0,1(?1) mode pulse with the same topologic charge as the seed. To our knowledge, this amplifier can offer the highest gain as 1.45×106 for optical vortex amplification. Finally, we obtain a 1.8 mJ, 51 fs compressed optical vortex seeded from a 2 nJ optical vortex.

A tunable ultrafast intensity-rotating optical field is generated by overlapping a pair of 20 Hz, 800 nm chirped pulses with a Michelson interferometer (MI). Its rotating rate can be up to 10 trillion radians per second ($\text{Trad}/\text{s}$), which can be flexibly tuned with a mirror in the MI. Besides, its fold rotational symmetry structure is also changeable by controlling the difference from the topological charges of the pulse pair. Experimentally, we have successfully developed a two-petal lattice with a tunable rotating speed from $3.9~\text{Trad}/\text{s}$ up to $11.9~\text{Trad}/\text{s}$, which is confirmed by our single-shot ultrafast frame imager based on noncollinear optical-parametric amplification with its highest frame rate of 15 trillion frames per second (Tfps). This work is carried out at a low repetition rate. Therefore, it can be applied at relativistic, even ultrarelativistic, intensities, which usually operate in low repetition rate ultrashort and ultraintense laser systems. We believe that it may have application in laser-plasma-based accelerators, strong terahertz radiations and celestial phenomena.

This paper presents a complete two-step phase-shifting (TSPS) spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER) to improve the reconstruction of ultrafast optical fields. Here, complete TSPS acts as a balanced detection that can not only remove the effect of the dc term of the interferogram, but also reduce measurement noises, and thereby improve the capability of SPIDER to measure the pulses with narrow spectra or complex spectral structures. Some prisms are chosen to replace some environment-sensitive optical components, especially reflective optics to improve operating stability and improve signal-to-noise ratio further. Our experiments show that the available shear can be decreased to 1.5% of the spectral width, which is only about $1/3$ compared with traditional SPIDER.

This paper reports the experimental realization of efficiently sorting vector beams by polarization topological charge (PTC). The PTC of a vector beam can be defined as the repetition number of polarization state change along the azimuthal axis, while its sign stands for the rotating direction of the polarization. Here, a couple of liquid crystal Pancharatnam–Berry optical elements (PBOEs) have been used to introduce conjugated spatial phase modulations for two orthogonal circular polarization states. Applying these PBOEs in a 4-f optical system, our experiments show the setup can work for PTC sorting with a separation efficiency of more than 58%. This work provides an effective way to decode information from different PTCs, which may be interesting in many fields, especially in optical communication.

Black phosphorus (BP), with thickness-dependent direct energy bandgaps (0.3–2 eV), shows an enhanced nonlinear optical response at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths. In this paper, we present experimentally multilayer BP flakes coated on microfiber (BCM) as a saturable absorber with a modulation depth of 16% and a saturable intensity of 6.8 MW/cm2. After inserting BCM into an Er-doped fiber ring laser, a stable dual-wavelength Q-switched state with central wavelengths of 1542.4 nm and 1543.2 nm (with wavelength spacing as small as 0.8 nm) is obtained with the aid of two cascaded fiber Bragg gratings as a coarse wavelength selector. Moreover, single-wavelength Q-switched operation at 1542.4 nm or 1543.2 nm is also realized, which can be switched between the two wavelengths flexibly just by adjusting the intracavity birefringence. These results suggest that BP combined with the cascaded fiber gratings can provide a simple and feasible candidate for a multiwavelength fiber laser. Our fiber laser may have potential applications in terahertz generation, laser radar, and so on.

To seek high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is critical but challenging for single-shot intense terahertz (THz) coherent detection. This paper presents an improved common-path spectral interferometer for single-shot THz detection with a single chirped pulse as the probe for THz electro-optic (EO) sampling. Here, the spectral interference occurs between the two orthogonal polarization components with a required relative time delay generated with only a birefringent plate after the EO sensor. Our experiments show that this interferometer can effectively suppress the noise usually suffered in a non-common-path interferometer. The measured single-shot SNR is up to 88.85, and the measured THz waveforms are independent of the orientation of the used ZnTe EO sensor, so it is easy to operate and the results are more reliable. These features mean that the interferometer is quite qualified for applications where strong THz pulses, usually with single-shot or low repetition rate, are indispensable.