Pulse compression by photoexcitation-induced dynamics of Bragg mirrors

TL;DR

This paper introduces dynamical Bragg mirrors that use photoexcitation-induced refractive index changes to achieve significant optical pulse compression, demonstrated through numerical modeling.

Contribution

It presents a novel method of pulse compression using photoexcited Bragg mirrors, with detailed numerical analysis of pulse dynamics and properties.

Findings

Up to 6-fold pulse compression predicted

Pulse compression occurs in the few-femtosecond regime

Refractive index modification controls pulse properties

Abstract

We propose dynamical Bragg mirrors as a means to compress intense short optical pulses. We show that strong-field photoexcitation of carriers changes the refractive index of the layers and leads to motion of the resonance-defined boundary of the Bragg mirror. In a reflection geometry, this counter-propagating motion leads to significant compression of the incident pulse. We utilize a finite-difference time-domain numerical model to predict up to a 6-fold pulse compression in the few-femtosecond regime. Modification of the refractive index and properties of the compressed pulse as a function of the incident pulse parameters are investigated.