Mapping anomalous dispersion of air with ultrashort mid-infrared pulses

Abstract We present experimental studies of long-distance transmission of ultrashort mid-infrared laser pulses through atmospheric air, probing air dispersion in the 3.6–4.2-μm wavelength range. Atmospheric air is still highly transparent to electromagnetic radiation in this spectral region, making...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: A. V. Mitrofanov, A. A. Voronin, D. A. Sidorov-Biryukov, M. V. Rozhko, E. A. Stepanov, A. B. Fedotov, V. Shumakova, S. Ališauskas, A. Pugžlys, A. Baltuška, A. M. Zheltikov
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2017
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/3ef34de83e40483b80dcde34138fcd96
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Sumario:Abstract We present experimental studies of long-distance transmission of ultrashort mid-infrared laser pulses through atmospheric air, probing air dispersion in the 3.6–4.2-μm wavelength range. Atmospheric air is still highly transparent to electromagnetic radiation in this spectral region, making it interesting for long-distance signal transmission. However, unlike most of the high-transmission regions in gas media, the group-velocity dispersion, as we show in this work, is anomalous at these wavelengths due to the nearby asymmetric-stretch rovibrational band of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The spectrograms of ultrashort mid-infrared laser pulses transmitted over a distance of 60 m in our experiments provide a map of air dispersion in this wavelength range, revealing clear signatures of anomalous dispersion, with anomalous group delays as long as 1.8 ps detected across the bandwidth covered by 80-fs laser pulses.