Ultrafast laser and electron pulses for high resolution imaging

激光以变革性的方式影响着科学、工程和医学。激光为基础研究开辟了新的途径，并产生了改变我们日常生活的实际成果。激光使新的工业流程和医疗成为可能，并引发了当今的信息时代。激光可以在前所未有的时间尺度上探索物质的新状态。激光系统产生强大的光束，可以以亚波长精度定位，并使显微镜工具具有无与伦比的分辨率。如今，激光科学正朝着紧凑、高效的光纤激光器发展。然而，光信号在光纤中的传播会导致非线性效应，必须仔细管理，特别是短持续时间脉冲。光纤激光器的有效带宽抑制了持续几个光周期的脉冲的产生。在接下来的任务中，我们将探索解决后一种影响所提出的问题的方法，这些问题限制了光纤激光系统的使用。我们的建议还将讨论如何将结构合理的激光信号用于激光扫描光学显微镜和激光加速电子束的高分辨率成像。

Lasers have impacted science, engineering and medicine in a transformative way. Lasers have opened new avenues for fundamental research and generated practical outcomes that have changed our daily life. Lasers have enabled new industrial processes and medical treatments and have triggered the present age of information. Lasers have allowed exploring new states of matter at unprecedented time scales. Laser systems generate powerful beams that can be positioned with sub-wavelength accuracy and have enabled microscopy tools with unmatched resolution. Nowadays laser science is moving towards fiber lasers that are compact and efficient. However propagation of optical signals in optical fibers leads to nonlinear effects that must be carefully managed, especially with pulses of short duration. The effective bandwidth of fiber lasers inhibits the generation of pulses of duration lasting a few optical cycles. In the coming mandate we will explore methods to resolve the issues raised by the latter effects that have limited the use of fiber laser systems. Our proposal will also address how properly structured laser signals can be used for high resolution imaging with laser scanning optical microscopes and laser accelerated electrons beams. 1. Shorter and more powerful pulses from fiber laser systems. We will use a cavity design with a pair of chirped fiber Bragg gratings to boost the energy of the pulses emitted by fiber laser oscillators. We will also design amplifiers based on Stimulated Raman Scattering to preserve the bandwidth of ultrashort pulses during amplification in order to make fiber laser systems competitive with their solid-state counterparts. 2. Superresolution in laser scanning optical microscopy. We will push the resolution limits of SLAM (Switching LAser Modes) microscopy well below the diffraction limit, down to 50 nm, using complex mode shapes and deconvolution methods. SLAM can be used with any type of modality in optical microscopy and its enhanced resolution does not require any specific laser sample interaction, contrary to most superresolution methods. 3. Particle acceleration using radially polarized laser pulses. We have introduced a scheme to directly accelerate electrons in free space using the longitudinal electric field component of ultrafast radially polarized laser pulses. We will exploit that scheme to produce electron beams suitable for high resolution imaging by means of ultrafast electron diffraction. We will explore how spatiotemporal shaping of laser pulses could be used to accelerate charged particles at laser focus in such a way as to produce a micrometer scale collider. This research program will be realized in an environment suitable for student training. The students will benefit from many internal and external collaborations, as well as interactions with industry.