High-energy tunable ultraviolet pulses generated by optical leaky wave in filamentation

Ultraviolet pulses could open up new opportunities for the study of strong-field physics and ultrafast science. However, the existing methods for generating ultraviolet pulses face difficulties in fulfilling the twofold requirements of high energy and wavelength tunability simultaneously. Here, we theoretically demonstrate the generation of high-energy and wavelength tunable ultraviolet pulses in preformed gas-plasma channels via the leaky wave emission. The output ultraviolet pulse has a tunable wavelength ranging from 91 nm to 430 nm, and an energy level up to sub-mJ. Such a high-energy tunable ultraviolet light source may provide promising opportunities for characterization of ultrafast phenomena, and also an important driving source for the generation of high-energy attosecond pulses. High-energy ultraviolet pulses serve as unique light sources for strong-field physics and ultrafast science. The authors theoretically demonstrate the generation of ultraviolet pulses with sub-mJ level energy via optical leaky wave in filamentation, where preformed gasplasma channels are used to provide adjustable dispersion conditions that enable a widely tunable wavelength range of the ultraviolet pulses.