We report on a vortex laser chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) system that delivers pulses with a peak power of 45 TW. A focused intensity exceeding 10¹⁹ W/cm² has been demonstrated for the first time by the vortex amplification scheme. Compared with other schemes of strong-field vortex generation with high energy flux but narrowband vortex-converting elements at the end of the laser, an important advantage of our scheme is that we can use a broadband but size-limited q-plate to realize broadband mode-converting in the front end of the CPA system, and achieve high-power amplification with a series of amplifiers. This method is low cost and can be easily implemented in an existing laser system. The results have verified the feasibility to obtain terawatt and even petawatt vortex laser amplification by a CPA system, which has important potential applications in strong-field laser physics, for example, generation of vortex particle beams with orbital angular momentum, fast ignition for inertial confinement fusion and simulation of the extreme astrophysical environment.

Metasurfaces composed of spatially arranged ultrathin subwavelength elements are promising photonic devices for manipulating optical wavefronts, with potential applications in holography, metalens, and multiplexing communications. Finding microstructures that meet light modulation requirements is always a challenge in designing metasurfaces, where parameter sweep, gradient-based inverse design, and topology optimization are the most commonly used design methods in which the massive electromagnetic iterations require the design computational cost and are sometimes prohibitive. Herein, we propose a fast inverse design method that combines a physics-based neural network surrogate model (NNSM) with an optimization algorithm. The NNSM, which can generate an accurate electromagnetic response from the geometric topologies of the meta-atoms, is constructed for electromagnetic iterations, and the optimization algorithm is used to search for the on-demand meta-atoms from the phase library established by the NNSM to realize an inverse design. This method addresses two important problems in metasurface design: fast and accurate electromagnetic wave phase prediction and inverse design through a single phase-shift value. As a proof-of-concept, we designed an orbital angular momentum (de)multiplexer based on a phase-type metasurface, and 200 Gbit/s quadrature-phase shift-keying signals were successfully transmitted with a bit error rate approaching 1.67×10-6. Because the design is mainly based on an optimization algorithm, it can address the “one-to-many” inverse problem in other micro/nano devices such as integrated photonic circuits, waveguides, and nano-antennas.

Materials with strong optical Kerr effects (OKEs) are crucial for a broad range of applications, such as all-optical data processing and quantum information. However, the underlying OKE mechanism is not clear in 2D materials. Here, we reveal key insights of the OKE associated with 2D excitons. An admirably succinct formalism is derived for predicting the spectra and the magnitude of the nonlinear refractive index (n2) of 2D materials. The predicted n2 spectra are consistent with reported experimental data and exhibit pronounced excitonic resonances, which is distinctively different from bulk semiconductors. The n2 value is predicted to be 3×10-10cm2/W for a 2D layered perovskite at low temperature as 7 K, which is four orders of magnitude larger than those of bulk semiconductors. The superior OKE induced by 2D excitons would give rise to a narrow refractive index-near-zero region for intense laser light. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the 2D layered perovskite should exhibit the best OKE efficiency (WFOM=1.02, TFOM=0.14) at 1550 nm, meeting the material requirements for all-optical switching. Our findings deepen the understanding of the OKE of 2D semiconducting materials and pave the way for highly efficient all-optical excitonic devices.

Optical logical operations demonstrate the key role of optical digital computing, which can perform general-purpose calculations and possess fast processing speed, low crosstalk, and high throughput. The logic states usually refer to linear momentums that are distinguished by intensity distributions, which blur the discrimination boundary and limit its sustainable applications. Here, we introduce orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode logical operations performed by optical diffractive neural networks (ODNNs). Using the OAM mode as a logic state not only can improve the parallel processing ability but also enhance the logic distinction and robustness of logical gates owing to the mode infinity and orthogonality. ODNN combining scalar diffraction theory and deep learning technology is designed to independently manipulate the mode and spatial position of multiple OAM modes, which allows for complex multilight modulation functions to respond to logic inputs. We show that few-layer ODNNs successfully implement the logical operations of AND, OR, NOT, NAND, and NOR in simulations. The logic units of XNOR and XOR are obtained by cascading the basic logical gates of AND, OR, and NOT, which can further constitute logical half-adder gates. Our demonstrations may provide a new avenue for optical logical operations and are expected to promote the practical application of optical digital computing.

Ultra-intense femtosecond vortex pulses can provide an opportunity to investigate the new phenomena with orbital angular momentum (OAM) involved in extreme cases. This paper reports a high gain optical vortex amplifier for intense femtosecond vortex pulses generation. Traditional regeneration amplifiers can offer high gain for Gaussian mode pulses but cannot amplify optical vortex pulses while maintaining the phase singularity because of mode competition. Here, we present a regeneration amplifier with a ring-shaped pump. By controlling the radius of the pump, the system can realize the motivation of the Laguerre–Gaussian [LG0,1(?1)] mode and the suppression of the Gaussian mode. Without seeds, the amplifier has a donut-shaped output containing two opposite OAM states simultaneously, as our prediction by simulation. If seeded by a pulse of a topologic charge of 1 or ?1, the system will output an amplified LG0,1(?1) mode pulse with the same topologic charge as the seed. To our knowledge, this amplifier can offer the highest gain as 1.45×106 for optical vortex amplification. Finally, we obtain a 1.8 mJ, 51 fs compressed optical vortex seeded from a 2 nJ optical vortex.

Dual-chirped difference frequency generation (DFG) is an advantageous technique for generating the broadband mid-infrared (IR) idler wave, which is inaccessible by a population-inversion-based laser system. In principle, the generated idler wave may even suffer a spectrum broadening compared with the driving pulsed lasers if the pump and signal waves are oppositely chirped. However, broadband phase-matching is always the determining factor for the resulting efficiency and the bandwidth of the generated idler wave. In this study, specific to an oppositely dual-chirped DFG scheme, we derive the precondition to realize broadband frequency conversion, wherein a negative $(1/\unicode[STIX]{x1D710}_{p}-1/\unicode[STIX]{x1D710}_{i})/(1/\unicode[STIX]{x1D710}_{s}-1/\unicode[STIX]{x1D710}_{i})$, in terms of the correlation coefficient of the group velocity ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$), is necessary. However, most birefringence bulk crystals can only provide the required material dispersions in limited spectral regions. We show that the periodically poled lithium niobate crystal that satisfies an inactive Type-II (eo-o) quasi-phase-matching condition has a stable negative $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$ and exerts the expected broadband gain characteristic across an ultra-broad idler spectral region $(1.7{-}4.0~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m})$. Finally, we propose and numerically verify a promising DFG configuration to construct a tunable mid-IR spectrum broader based on the broadband phase-matched oppositely dual-chirped DFG scheme.