Atomic and Molecular Physics|6 Article(s)
Time-stamp Camera Centroiding Algorithm and Dissociation Electron/ion Momentum Distribution Simulation
Xiaohong HUA, Yuliang GUO, Tianmin YAN, Shuai LI, Xincheng WANG, and Yuhai JIANG
The time-stamped camera Tpx3Cam is a cutting-edge tool for exploring atomic and molecular dynamics, enabling the detection of photons, electrons, and ions in three dimensions with an impressive time resolution of up to 1.6 ns. Despite its advantages, Tpx3Cam faces inherent challenges, such as the cluster effect. This effect compromises both the temporal and spatial resolution of data acquisition while significantly increasing data capacity, thereby posing obstacles for subsequent data processing. To counter this, a method, known as the centroiding algorithm, is crucial to mitigate the cluster effect's impact, enhance Tpx3Cam's imaging resolution, and reduce data capacity. The current centroiding algorithm efficiently eliminates unnecessary derived signals within clusters and accurately locates their centers by analyzing their distributions, achieving subpixel super-resolution in position. However, existing centroiding algorithms are limited to handling low counting rates, specifically dealing with isolated clusters, lacking the capability to distinguish connected clusters in position. Under high counting rates, closely situated clusters could emerge within a short time. Consequently, traditional centroiding algorithms is inadequate for declustering in such scenarios.A new centroiding algorithm has been developed to address the cluster effect encountered during high counting rate imaging processes. Based on the existing centroiding algorithm, this new method significantly enhances the capability to distinguish clusters in time. It accurately identifies each independent cluster within extensive datasets, effectively declustering them. It results in a data capacity reduction by approximately one order of magnitude, while achieving subpixel super-resolution of the cluster center location. A position resolution of about 0.1 pixel could be achieved with the application of this new algorithm for each signal. Additionally, instead of employing Gaussian fitting, we utilize the weighted average method to determine cluster centers. This choice is supported by its equivalence to Gaussian fitting, as proven in the article. Notably, the weighted average method exhibits higher efficiency compared to Gaussian fitting. It's approximately 103 times faster in locating cluster centers in calculations.To validate the impact of the centroiding algorithm on Tpx3Cam imaging in practical experiments, we conducted simulations using SIMION to replicate the imaging process of electrons and ions in a typical Velocity Map Imaging(VMI) system. By simulating the ionization of ns state electrons and the Coulomb explosions of N2 from the (1,1) channel in VMI experiments, we observed significant improvements. The centroiding algorithm reduced the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) of the electron's position distribution by 30%, thereby enhancing momentum resolution by 30% along the detector plane. Moreover, it reduced the FWHM of the time-of-flight (ToF) distribution of N+ from Coulomb explosions by 80%, leading to an 80% enhancement in time resolution. Variations might occur with alterations in the initial conditions of electrons and ions, the overall improvements in position and time resolution remain consistent. Consequently, the centroiding algorithm demonstrates its efficacy in enhancing momentum resolution in practical electron and ion detection experiments. Furthermore, conducting covariance analysis on the ions' radius distribution resulting from the Coulomb explosion of CO with background gas interference, after the implementation of the centroiding algorithm, successfully revealed the correlation between C+ and O+. This algorithm effectively mitigates count fluctuation interference induced by the cluster effect and remains unaffected by background impurities. Finally, the impact of count rate on the centroiding algorithm is addressed. Excessively high count rates pose a risk of data loss when employing the centroiding algorithm. We are actively addressing this concern and working towards resolving this flaw in the algorithm, aiming for a solution in the near future.
Acta Photonica Sinica
  • Publication Date: Apr. 25, 2024
  • Vol. 53, Issue 4, 0402001 (2024)
Microwave Electric Fields Measurement with One-dimensional Standing-wave Fields Based on Rydberg Atoms
Ke LI, Jianfei TIAN, Hao ZHANG, Mingyong JING, and Linjie ZHANG
Due to the large distance between the electrons and the nucleus and the large electric dipole moment, the interatomic interaction of the Rydberg atoms are weaker than those of the ground-state atoms. Therefore, the external electric field has a greater influence on the Rydberg atoms. This property leads to the fact that the Rydberg atoms is extremely sensitive to the external electric field. Therefore, electric field measurement based on Rydberg atoms is a hot spot, especially in microwave electric field measurement. In addition, thanks to the long lifetime of the Rydberg atoms, there are possibilities to achieve higher sensitivity beyond classic electric dipole antenna.Enhancement measurement of microwave electric field is demonstrated based on the Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) effect of the Rydberg atoms, in which a one-dimensional standing wave of coupling light field is formed. This paper presents comprehensive research for measuring microwave electric field based on the coherent enhancement of a one-dimensional standing wave field of coupling light based on the electromagnetic induction effect of Rydberg atoms. A four-level system of cesium atoms at room temperature is constructed. At first, the cesium atoms in the ground-state (6S1/2) are excited to the immediate state (6P3/2) by a diode laser (probe light, ~852 nm). Secondly, a 510 nm laser (coupling light) exits the immediate state atoms to the Rydberg state. The transmission of the probe light, which is derived from the electromagnetic induced transparency effect, is recorded. In an atom vapor cell with an antireflection film coating at the wavelength of coupling light, a one-dimensional standing wave field of coupling light is achieved using a mode-matching reflection optical path. The influence of the coherent enhancement of the one-dimensional standing wave coupling light field on the electromagnetically induced transparency transmission is observed and analyzed. Then, the cesium atoms are coupled with the nearby Rydberg state by the incoming microwave electric field. The microwave electric field in the four-level atomic system causing a splitting of the transmission spectrum of probe laser which is known as Autler-Townes splitting. The coherent enhancement of the one-dimensional standing wave coupling light field on the EIT-AT splitting spectrum is observed, and the strength of microwave electric field with amplitude modulation is measured using the spectrum analyzer.The experimental results have shown that the amplitude and linewidth of the Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency spectrum is enhanced significantly, in which the one-dimensional standing wave coupling light field is formed. Compared to increasing the output power of the coupling laser, the measurement of amplitude-modulated microwave electric field is investigated with the one-dimension standing wave in detail. The results show that for the lower-power microwave electric field, the signal-to-noise ratio is improved by about 4 dB and the instantaneous bandwidth is increased by 1.38 times in the one-dimensional standing wave field. A flatter frequency response is obtained for higher-power microwave electric field, while an apparent bimodal frequency response curve is observed without a standing wave field. The coherent power enhancement at the propagating direction of coupling light and the detuning of the probe and coupling light induced by Doppler effect are responsible for improving the signal-to-noise ratio and flattening frequency response curve. The precision measurement of microwave electric field is attributed to a frontier research field that can be applied to developing microwave communication and radar. The coherent enhancement of Rydberg atoms EIT one-dimensional standing wave coupling light field can be adopted as a new method to develop the electric field probe (sensor) with low power consumption, flat frequency response curve and high dynamic range, which will be significant for the development and the application of the corresponding metrological standard.
Acta Photonica Sinica
  • Publication Date: Sep. 25, 2023
  • Vol. 52, Issue 9, 0902001 (2023)
Internal Relationship between Symmetrical and Asymmetric Molecular Harmonic Radiation and Its Structure
Shujuan YU, Zhuqin LIU, Dongmei CAO, Yanfeng LIU, and Yanpeng LI
For symmetric molecules, only odd harmonics are emitted. In particular, the high-order harmonic spectrum shows a significant minimum which corresponds to the minimum in the dipole moment of the bound-continuous state transition. For asymmetric molecules, both odd and even harmonics are emitted. However, in many cases, the striking minimum disappears in the odd or even harmonic spectrum. Fortunately, when the minimum cannot be read from the harmonic spectra directly, it can be probed through the polarization measurement of the odd-even high-order harmonic generation. Specifically, the position of the minimum in the odd or even dipole corresponds to the harmonic order for the maximal ellipticity of the odd or even harmonics. However, for symmetric molecules H2+, the minimum in the transition dipole is not completely consistent with the minimum of the harmonic spectra. For asymmetric molecules HeH2+, the prediction of the dipole minimum by the polarization measurement does not always agree well with the theoretical evaluation. In some cases, a remarkable difference is also observed. This remarkable difference may arise from other mechanisms beyond the description of the simple model, or the inaccurate calculation of dipole moment may be caused only by some rough approximate in relevant theoretical treatments. In this paper, this question is explored by improving the calculation of the dipole moment. The intrinsic relationship between harmonic radiation and the structure of symmetric and asymmetric molecules is studied by a combination of numerical and analytical methods. First, the numerical expressions of the ground state wave functions of symmetric and asymmetric molecules are obtained using the virtual time evolution method. Starting from the accurate ground state wave functions of symmetric and asymmetric molecules, the bound-continuous state transition dipole moments are calculated. The term proportional to the nuclear separation is further subtracted from the transition dipole moment. For symmetric molecules H2+, the calculated odd dipole moment is compared with the harmonic spectrum and the transition dipole moments obtained by the pure analytical method. For asymmetric molecules HeH2+, the calculated odd dipole moment is compared with the harmonic spectrum, the ellipticity of the harmonics and the transition dipole moments obtained by the pure analytical method. Simulation results show that the minimum in the improved odd dipole moments agree more well with that predicted by odd harmonics compared with the transition dipole moments obtained by the pure analytical method for symmetric moleculesH2+. For asymmetric molecules HeH2+, the calculated dipole moment shows a clear minimum, which arises from the effect of two-center interference. However, there is usually no minimum value appearing in the high-order harmonic spectrum of asymmetric molecules. A further comparison between the ellipticity of the harmonics and the corresponding dipole moments shows that the harmonic order at which the ellipticity is maximal corresponds to the order at which the dipole has a minimum. The polarization measurement of harmonics can be used as a tool to detect the position of the minimum value of dipole moment. The obtained ground state wave function significantly improves the consistency between the minimum odd-even dipole moment and the maximum odd-even harmonic polarization at different molecular parameters. These phenomena reveal that the recombination process plays a key role in the harmonic radiation of symmetric and asymmetric molecules and verifies the one-to-one matching between the high-order harmonic spectra and the corresponding dipoles. And molecular orbitals can be reconstructed by transition dipole elements. The research results provide deep insights into the relation between odd high-order harmonic generation and symmetric molecular orbital and the relation between odd-even high-order harmonic generation and asymmetric molecular orbital. The research results have some significance for the role of odd-even harmonic radiation in the ultrafast detection of asymmetric molecules.
Acta Photonica Sinica
  • Publication Date: Mar. 25, 2022
  • Vol. 51, Issue 3, 0302001 (2022)
Control of Polarization States of Atomic High-order Harmonic Generation
Zhijiang LI, Guoli WANG, Zhihong JIAO, Xiaoyong LI, and Xiaoxin ZHOU
The polarization of high-order harmonics radiated from He driven by counter-rotating two-color laser field, which consists of a elliptically polarized fundamental field and its counter-rotating circular third harmonic pulse, are investigated by numerically solving the two-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation with split operator method. The simulations show that the polarization state of harmonics can be fully controlled from circular polarization, through elliptically, to linearly polarized harmonics, by adjusting the ellipticity, intensity and phase of the fundamental field. This research is helpful for the generation of extreme utilityvehicle and X-ray sources with controllable polarization states in the experiment.
Acta Photonica Sinica
  • Publication Date: Jun. 25, 2021
  • Vol. 50, Issue 6, 161 (2021)
Power Frequency Electric Field Measurement Based on Electromagnetic Induced Transparent Spectrum under Radio Frequency Field
Chungang ZHANG, Wei LI, Hao ZHANG, Mingyong JING, and Linjie ZHANG
The two-photon (852 nm and 509 nm) excitation was used to achieve the preparation of the 53S1/2 Rydberg state of cesium atoms. The electromagnetically induced transparency spectrum of Rydberg atoms in which the radio frequency electric fields in the AC Stark effect was studied. By changing the amplitude of the radio frequency electric fields, the dependance of the Stark frequency shift of Rydberg atoms on the amplitude of the electric field was investigated. In the experiments, the power frequency electric fields were modulated to the radio frequency electric fields. The traceable measurement of the field strength of the power frequency electric field was realized. The field strength sensitivity can reach 0.37 V/cm, and the amplitude measurement dynamic range can reaches 37.2 dB. Moreover, the frequency measurement of power frequency electric fields is demonstrated, and the uncertainty of frequency measurement is smaller than 0.1%.
Acta Photonica Sinica
  • Publication Date: Jun. 25, 2021
  • Vol. 50, Issue 6, 154 (2021)
Manipulating the Evolution of Atomic Transient Coherent Effect
Yi-zhuo LI, Yu-jie SUN, and Zhao-ying WANG
This paper mainly focuses on exploring the influence of the radio frequency field's frequency and the different atomic coherent situation on the transient effect. It is found that the polarized coherent atoms can still experience a strong transient effect whether the radio frequency filed is resonant or detuned with the Larmor precession frequency, and the transient oscillation frequency depends on the power and frequency of radio frequency field in terms of Ω=Ω02+δ2. Furthermore, the amplitude of transient effect depends on the population of the coherent atoms is explored. The more polarized coherent atoms, the stronger the transient effect presents. At last, we analyze these phenomena by calculating the absorption of beam based on the Liouville equation. There is a good agreement between the experiment data and the theoretical results. These results can provide further insight into the relationship between the coherence of atoms and the transient effect.
Acta Photonica Sinica
  • Publication Date: Oct. 15, 2020
  • Vol. 49, Issue 10, 1002001 (2020)