Simultaneous spatio-temporal focusing with pulse front symmetrization.

Simultaneous spatio-temporal focusing of ultrashort pulses is usually performed by single-channel stretcher-compressor geometries where pulse front tilt leads to spatial asymmetry. Here, the basic approach is extended by superimposing two reciprocal sub-beams in a dual-channel stretcher-compressor setup. Spatio-temporal properties of the symmetrized focal zones of few-cycle near-infrared pulses are studied by parametric numerical simulations with physical optics software.

Overview of terrestrial water storage changes over the Indus River Basin based on GRACE/GRACE-FO solutions.

Water resources are under severe stress in the highly populated Indus River Basin due to the increased consumption of water across different sectors and climate change. Coping with these challenges, requires a clear understanding on hydrological processes and anthropogenic activities, and how these are influencing recharging and spatiotemporal availability of groundwater in the basin. The present study aims to investigate the natural and anthropogenic impact on Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) over the Indus River Basin by using a series of statistical methods and the observation data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and Follow-On (GRACE-FO).

Self-imaging of tailored vortex pulse arrays and spectral Gouy rotation echoes.

Self-imaging of femtosecond pulses with orbital angular momentum is studied in spectral domain by illuminating the orthogonal arrays of spiral gratings. Spectral Gouy rotation, i.e.

Spectral anomalies and Gouy rotation around the singularity of ultrashort vortex pulses.

Spectral anomalies of femtosecond pulses with orbital angular momentum were studied in the vicinity of singularities. Bessel-Gauss (BG) beams were generated with mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillators and dispersion-compensated diffractive axicons acting as spiral phase plates (SPPs). High-resolution two-dimensional spectral mapping was performed with a scanning fiber probe.

Nondiffracting self-imaging of ultrashort wavepackets.

Self-imaging of ultrashort-pulsed nondiffracting needle beams, i.e., fringe-free Bessel beams, is analyzed.

Prospects of target nanostructuring for laser proton acceleration.

In laser-based proton acceleration, nanostructured targets hold the promise to allow for significantly boosted proton energies due to strong increase of laser absorption. We used laser-induced periodic surface structures generated in-situ as a very fast and economic way to produce nanostructured targets capable of high-repetition rate applications. Both in experiment and theory, we investigate the impact of nanostructuring on the proton spectrum for different laser-plasma conditions.

Long-Term Incidence of Secondary Malignancies after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: A Single-Center Experience.

To review the emergence of secondary malignancies (SMs) in recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), we documented the occurrence of SMs in 2415 allogeneic HCT recipients, ages 18 to 71, in a single center over 4 decades. SMs were seen in 209 patients, including 58 with nonmetastatic squamous cell (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) of the skin. Cumulative incidence of SM was 6.

Spatio-temporal coherence mapping of few-cycle vortex pulses.

Light carrying an orbital angular momentum (OAM) displays an optical phase front rotating in space and time and a vanishing intensity, a so-called vortex, in the center. Beyond continuous-wave vortex beams, optical pulses with a finite OAM are important for many areas of science and technology, ranging from the selective manipulation and excitation of matter to telecommunications. Generation of vortex pulses with a duration of few optical cycles requires new methods for characterising their coherence properties in space and time.

Refractive-diffractive dispersion compensation for optical vortex beams with ultrashort pulse durations.

Wave fields, which are described mathematically by higher order Bessel functions, carry an orbital angular momentum and thus represent particular types of optical vortex beams with helical wavefronts. For the generation of such vortex beams, one may use, for instance, diffractive spiral axicons. Diffraction, however, leads invariably to strong dispersion, which is detrimental for ultrashort pulses since it leads to severe pulse broadening.

Sub-3-cycle vortex pulses of tunable topological charge.

Novel types of reflective spiral micro-electro-mechanical systems were used to generate few-cycle vortex pulses of variable topological charge from a Ti:sapphire laser oscillator. The phase profile of these components was controlled by varying the temperature. The temporal properties of the pulses were characterized with spatially resolved nonlinear autocorrelation.

Few-cycle high-contrast vortex pulses.

Few-cycle high-contrast vortex beams with pulse durations around 8 fs were generated from a Ti:sapphire laser oscillator with a single diffractive-refractive component. Angular and temporal pulse properties were characterized with an advanced time-wavefront sensor. The temporal transfer indicates a fairly complete self-compensation.

Ultrashort highly localized wavepackets.

The recently introduced concept of radially non-oscillating, temporally stable ultrashort-pulsed Bessel-like beams we referred to as needle beams is generalized to a particular class of highly localized wavepackets (HLWs). Spatio-temporally quasi-nondiffracting pulses propagating along extended zones are shaped from Ti:sapphire oscillator radiation with a spatial light modulator and characterized with spatially resolved second order autocorrelation. Few-cycle wavepackets tailored to resemble circular disks, rings and bars of light represent the closest approximation of linear-optical light bullets known so far.

Reconfigurable wavefront sensor for ultrashort pulses.

A highly flexible Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor for ultrashort pulse diagnostics is presented. The temporal system performance is studied in detail. Reflective operation is enabled by programming tilt-tolerant microaxicons into a liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulator.

Highly efficient THG in TiO2 nanolayers for third-order pulse characterization.

Third harmonic generation (THG) of femtosecond laser pulses in sputtered nanocrystalline TiO2 thin films is investigated. Using layers of graded thickness, the dependence of THG on the film parameters is studied. The maximum THG signal is observed at a thickness of 180 nm.

Extended-area nanostructuring of TiO2 with femtosecond laser pulses at 400 nm using a line focus.

An efficient way to generate nanoscale laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) in rutile-type TiO(2) with frequency-converted femtosecond laser pulses at wavelengths around 400 nm is reported. Extended-area structuring on fixed and moving substrates was obtained by exploiting the line focus of a cylindrical lens. Under defined conditions with respect to pulse number, pulse energy and scanning velocity, two types of ripple-like LIPSS with high and low spatial frequencies (HSFL, LSFL) with periods in the range of 90 nm and 340 nm, respectively, were formed.

Programmable ultrashort-pulsed flying images.

We report the generation of programmable two-dimensional arrangements of ultrashort-pulsed fringe-less Bessel-like beams of extended depth of focus (referred to as needle beams) without truncating apertures. A sub-20-fs Ti:sapphire laser and a liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulator (LCoS-SLM) of high-fidelity temporal transfer in phase-only operation mode were used in the experiments. Axicon profiles with ultrasmall conical angles were approximated by adapted gray scale distributions.

Synthesized femtosecond laser pulse source for two-wavelength contouring with simultaneously recorded digital holograms.

A dual-wavelength femtosecond laser pulse source and its application for digital holographic single-shot contouring are presented. The synthesized laser source combines sub-picosecond time scales with a wide reconstruction range. A center wavelength distance of the two separated pulses of only 15 nm with a high contrast was demonstrated by spectral shaping of the 50 nm broad seed spectrum centered at 800 nm.

Ultrashort-pulsed truncated polychromatic Bessel-Gauss beams.

Spatio-spectral and spatio-temporal transfer and intensity propagation of truncated ultrashort-pulsed Bessel-Gauss beams were investigated. Extended needle-shaped focal zones were generated using a compact setup with a reflective small-angle axicon and self-apodized truncation by an adapted aperture. Spectral maps of Bessel-Gauss beams were analyzed on the basis of higher order statistical moments.

Surface-hopping dynamics and decoherence with quantum equilibrium structure.

In open quantum systems, decoherence occurs through interaction of a quantum subsystem with its environment. The computation of expectation values requires a knowledge of the quantum dynamics of operators and sampling from initial states of the density matrix describing the subsystem and bath. We consider situations where the quantum evolution can be approximated by quantum-classical Liouville dynamics and examine the circumstances under which the evolution can be reduced to surface-hopping dynamics, where the evolution consists of trajectory segments exclusively evolving on single adiabatic surfaces, with probabilistic hops between these surfaces.

Microlens formation by thin-film deposition with mesh-shaped masks.

Thin-film microlens arrays with high fill factors have been fabricated in a one-step process by shading a vapor beam in a vacuum-deposition apparatus with metallic meshes placed at defined distances to the substrate surface. To generate three-dimensional mask structures with the necessary depth profiles, microgalvanic technology has been applied. Profiles and optical properties of the microlenses have been studied theoretically and experimentally.

Generation of femtosecond Bessel beams with microaxicon arrays.

Multiple quasi-Bessel beams are generated by transmission of sub-30-fs pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser through refractive thin-film microaxicon arrays. Time-integrated intensity distributions at several axial positions and for pulse durations of 26 and 12.5 fs reveal significant changes of contrast, envelope function, and spatial frequency spectrum in comparison with continuous wave data.

Angular tolerance of Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors with microaxicons.

Wavefront sensing under nonparaxial conditions was studied with Shack-Hartmann setups based on arrays of microaxicons. The robustness of the generated pseudonondiffracting subbeams against tilt and axial displacement was demonstrated for ultraflat Gaussian- and inverse-Gaussian-shaped elements in transmission and reflection. To characterize slight aberrations and to identify optimum parameter fields, spatial moments of intensity profiles were analyzed with high sensitivity.

Decoherence and quantum-classical master equation dynamics.

The conditions under which quantum-classical Liouville dynamics may be reduced to a master equation are investigated. Systems that can be partitioned into a quantum-classical subsystem interacting with a classical bath are considered. Starting with an exact non-Markovian equation for the diagonal elements of the density matrix, an evolution equation for the subsystem density matrix is derived.

Scalable multichannel micromachining with pseudo-nondiffracting vacuum ultraviolet beam arrays generated by thin-film axicons.

Scalable multichannel microstructuring was demonstrated by multiplexing a focused molecular fluorine laser beam with cylindrical nanolayer microaxicons into an array of converging pseudo-nondiffracting subbeams. The axicons were fabricated by shadow-mask vapor deposition of magnesium fluoride onto substrates of identical material. Long-period surface gratings of variable pitch were generated on poly(methyl methacrylate) by varying the target position within the converging periodic focal lines.

Vacuum-ultraviolet beam array generation by flat micro-optical structures.

Micro-optical structures for VUV laser beam shaping and wave-front sensing were manufactured by thin-film deposition onto CaF2 and transfer by etching. Arrays of Bessel-like F2 laser beams at a wavelength of 157 nm with extremely small conical angles were generated by microaxicon lenses. Beam propagation was studied in simulations and experiments.