We theoretically investigate the delay-dependent attosecond transient absorption spectra in the helium atom dressed by an infrared laser pulse in the wavelength range of 800–2400 nm. By numerically solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Schr dinger equation, we find that the absorption spectrogram exhibits a multiple-fringe structure for using the mid-infrared dressing pulse. The quantitative calculation of the transition matrix between different Floquet states provides direct evidence on the origin of the multiple-fringe structure. Our result shows that the wavelength of the dressing pulse is an important parameter and the unique feature of attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy can be induced in the mid-infrared regime.

We report on a systematic study of the laser polarization effect on a femtosecond laser filamentation in air. By changing the laser’s ellipticity from linear polarization to circular polarization, the onset position of laser filament formation becomes farther from the focusing optics, the filament length is shorter, and less laser energy is deposited. The laser polarization effect on air filaments is supported by a simulation and analysis of the polarization-dependent critical power and ionization rates in air.

Beam quality degradation during the transition from a laser wakefield accelerator to the vacuum is one of the reasons that cause the beam transport distortion, which hinders the way to compact free-electron-lasers. Here, we performed transition simulation to initialize the beam parameters for beam optics transport. This initialization was crucial in matching the experimental results and the designed evolution of the beamline. We experimentally characterized properties of high-quality laser-wakefield-accelerated electron beams, such as transverse beam profile, divergence, and directionality after long-distance transport. By installing magnetic quadrupole lenses with tailored strength gradients, we successfully collimated the electron beams with tunable energies from 200 to 600 MeV.

Sub-picosecond chirped laser pulse-induced airflow and water condensation were investigated in a cloud chamber. The results indicate that the positively chirped sub-picosecond laser pulses generate a more uniform intensity distribution inside the plasma column, leading to a weaker airflow and an elliptic-shaped snow pile. The negatively chirped sub-picosecond laser pulses generate a spark-like intensity distribution inside the plasma column, which produces a wider range of airflow and a round snow pile. The amount of snow weight and the concentration of NO3 are found to be dependent on the intensity distribution inside the plasma column. The visibly stronger plasma column generates much more snow and a higher concentration of NO3 . These experimental results provide a reference for sub-picosecond laser-induced water condensation in realistic atmospheric conditions.

We research some properties of parasitic lasing (PL) in the Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier with the crystal diameter of 100 mm. The evolutionary process from the spontaneous emission to the PL and its influence on amplified output energy, spectrum, and beam profile are experimentally measured. The threshold of PL in the crystal is 22 J, and the output signal can still keep rising with the pump when the pump energy is below 38 J. The PL has no obvious impact on the output spectrum and beam profile besides the energy.

We experimentally and theoretically demonstrate that the property (odd or even) of generated harmonics can be selected by manipulating the macroscopic phase-matching conditions based on a three-color laser field. Only odd or even harmonics can be made dominant by changing the focal position and adjusting the gas pressure. These results indicate that the odd-even property of the generated harmonics can be controlled by using the multi-color laser field with macroscopic phase-matching.

We investigate the reflected field for few-cycle ultra-short laser pulses propagating through resonant media embedded within wavelength-scale structures. Full-wave Maxwell–Bloch equations are solved numerically by using the finite-difference time-domain method. The results show that the spectral feature of the reflected spectrum is determined by the Bragg reflection condition, and that the periodic structure of a dense atomic system can be regarded as a one-dimensional photonic crystal and even as a highly reflective multilayer film. Our study explains the suppression of the frequency shifts in the reflected spectrum based on the Bragg reflection theory and provides a method to control the frequency and frequency intervals of the spectral spikes in the reflected spectrum.