College of Optical Science, University of Arizona, 1630 East University Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.
Opt Lett. 2011 Aug 1;36(15):2991-3. doi: 10.1364/OL.36.002991.
We experimentally and numerically investigate the intracavity ionization of a dilute gas target by an ultrashort pulse inside a femtosecond enhancement cavity. Numerical simulations detail how the dynamic ionization of the gas target limits the achievable peak intensity of the evolving intracavity pulse beyond that of linear cavity losses, setting a constraint on the strength of the nonlinear interaction that can be sustained in such optical cavities. Experimental measurements combined with numerical simulations predict ionization levels in a femtosecond enhancement cavity for the first time. We demonstrate how the resonant response of the femtosecond enhancement cavity can itself be used as a sensitive probe of optical nonlinearities at high intensities.
我们通过在飞秒增强腔体内的超短脉冲实验和数值研究了稀气体目标的腔内电离。数值模拟详细说明了气体目标的动态电离如何限制腔内脉冲的可达到峰值强度超过线性腔损耗，从而对这种光学腔中可以维持的非线性相互作用的强度施加了限制。实验测量与数值模拟相结合，首次预测了飞秒增强腔内的电离水平。我们展示了飞秒增强腔的共振响应如何本身被用作高强度光学非线性的灵敏探针。
