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[讨论][原创]飞秒激光的应用!!!
Ultrafast Spectroscopy
http://dutch.phys.strath.ac.uk/FRC/research/research.html
why use ultrafast spectroscopy?
Ultrafast spectroscopy has become one of the most active areas of chemical physics. Rather than postulating mechanisms for reactions, ultrashort laser pulse can now be used to observe and even control the outcome of reactions in real time. A state-of-the-art laser system can generate 1-J, 20-fs pulses and the peak fluence at the focus of these lasers can exceed 1020 W cm-2. In contrast, the total solar flux at the Earth is only 1017 W. An exciting new era is beginning, which will allow the possibility of using these intense ultrashort laser pulses as sources of short x-ray and electron pulses. These will reveal the positions of atoms as a function of time as reactants proceed to products through the transition states. More routinely, femtosecond lasers can be used to detect and monitor transient chemical species in solution or gas phases, to image living cells with micrometer resolution, for laser-ablation mass spectrometry and micro-machining applications.
Ultrafast spectroscopy was revolutionized in the 1980s by the invention of the CPM or colliding-pulse mode-locked dye laser, which generated 100-fs pulses in its early form and 30 fs as the technology was perfected. This ring laser, operating at about 620 nm, coupled with improvements in dye-amplifier chains allowed the exciting field of femtochemistry to be developed, and the generation of 6-fs probe pulses, a record which stood until very recently. Self mode-locking in titanium-sapphire based lasers was discovered in 1990 and the early nineties brought a new revolution - simplicity of use- and with it, the commercialisation of ultrashort pulse technology. Ti:sapphire oscillators now produce 10-20-fs pulses routinely and 4-5-fs pulses in optimised configurations using mirrors designed to reverse the chirp introduced by the Ti:sapphire rod. The limiting factor on the exceptional stability of these oscillators is the pump source and here diode-pumped solid-state laser sources are rapidly replacing large expensive low-efficiency ion lasers.
In parallel with improvements in oscillator technology, the technique of chirped pulse amplification using solid-state gain media in regenerative or multipass schemes has replaced the dye-chain amplifiers of the past. A typical amplifier for routine applications produces 1 mJ per pulse at a 1-kHz repetition rate or 100 mJ at 10-20 Hz with a duration between 20 and 100 fs. Moreover, a Ti:sapphire laser oscillator and amplifier combination can be purchased in a single box less than one meter square, operating at mains voltages with no external water-cooling requirements. Total hands-off operation is a reality and, in fact, the complete laser system can be computer controlled!
A history of the field can be found in the papers submitted to the biennial conference Ultrafast Phenomena, the proceedings of which are published in the Springer Series in Chemical Physics, which is now in its twelfth volume.
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