Chinese physicists have found a way to amplify the effect of ultrafast lasers many times over without increasing their power. Research by a team led by Jian Wu at East China Normal University (ECNU) allows for high efficiency without damaging expensive equipment or the material being studied. This is reported by Ixbt.com reports .
The researchers managed to amplify one of the primary nonlinear optical effects by more than 20 times without changing the average energy of the laser pulse. Usually, such processes require extremely powerful lasers, but they often overheat optical elements or destroy samples. Instead of increasing radiation power, Chinese scientists decided to change the quantum properties of light.
To achieve this, they used a special quantum state known as "bright squeezed vacuum." In such light, strong fluctuations in photon density are observed: while the average energy remains low, short bursts with extremely high intensity are created within the pulse. It is these bursts that significantly enhance the interaction of light with matter.
During the experiment, a laser pulse with an energy of only 300 nanojoules demonstrated an effect that would require 20 times higher intensity from a conventional laser. This method is expected to revolutionize attosecond physics—the study of processes occurring in billionths of a billionth of a second. Scientists are now moving from fighting quantum fluctuations to using them as a useful tool.
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