Study of ionization and rotational dynamics of molecules under intense laser fields and spectral broadening via laser filamentation

We study the ultrafast dynamics such as ionization and rotation of various molecules (e.g., CO₂ and N₂O) under intense femtosecond laser fields in a single shot using Frequency Domain Holography (FDH) [1-2] as well as investigate spectral broadening via filamentation in molecular gases. FDH is a single-shot, time-resolved visualization technique that utilizes chirped reference and probe pulses that interrogate the nonlinear effects caused by an intense ultrashort pump pulse. In particular, single-shot visualization of laser-matter interactions will allow for increased understanding of nonlinear optical phenomena such as Raman-induced extreme spectral broadening [3], filamentation [4], and plasma generation and recombination [2].

[1] S. P. Le Blanc et al., Opt. Lett. 56, 764-766 (2000). [2] D. Dempsey et al. Opt. Lett. 45, 1252-1255 (2020) [3] J. Beetar et al., Science Advances 6, eabb5375 (2020) [4] A. Couairon and A. Mysyrowicz, Phys. Rep. 441, 47 (2007).