title: Ultrashort-pulse modulation in adiabatically prepared Raman media.
abstract: We demonstrate the efficient modulation of an approximately 100-femtosecond pulse in a Raman medium coherently prepared by nanosecond pulses. Raman sidebands of the ultrashort pulse spanning 360 THz are generated with an efficiency of >5%. We show that the mechanism permitting the sidebands to be generated is the preparation of a significant vibrational coherence in the medium that is robust to disturbance by an intense short pulse. If the observed sidebands were phase compensated, they would form a short train of approximately ten 3-fs pulses. Focusing would permit the realization of a peak intensity of >10(13) W cm(-2).
authors.affiliation: Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2BZ, UK. sarah.gundry@imperial.ac.uk
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gundry
authors.forename: Marcel P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Anscombe
authors.forename: Abubaker M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Abdulla
authors.forename: Emiliano
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sali
authors.forename: John W G
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Tisch
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kinsler
authors.forename: Geoffrey H C
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: New
authors.forename: Jon P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Marangos