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In the present work we performed research of supercontinuum generation in several commonly used and new supercontinuum generation crystals for subsequent nonlinear amplification, using 1–3 µJ energy pulses of 300 fs duration at 1 MHz repetition rate. Obtained supercontinuum spectra spanning over 480–1950 nm wavelength range at pump pulse energies as low as 200 nJ in KGW and YVO₄ crystals. We present simple experimental setups of stimulated Raman amplification and optical parametric amplification using supercontinuum seeds obtained from several selected crystals. We achieved total energy conversion efficiencies up to 9% both for optical parametric amplification setup and for stimulated Raman amplification setups. The optical parametric amplifier was tunable in the 680–980 nm spectral range and produced ultrashort pulses of 23–44 fs duration. Raman amplifier produced more than 130 mW average power at 1194 nm wavelength and featured broadened spectrum corresponding to Fourier transform limited ~ 100 fs pulse duration. We demonstrated that low power and low energy femtosecond lasers could be efficiently employed for the nonlinear wavelength conversion.

The paper shows visualization of cavitation inside a micro-Venturi channel. While the initial aim of the study was to establish supercavitating conditions inside a micro-Venturi, yet we found that this regime is suppressed due to the formation of a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, which triggers a semi periodical attached cavity collapse. In depth observations using high speed imaging with visible light and X-rays revealed that this is, besides the re-entrant jet and the shock wave, a third mechanism leading to the shedding of cloud cavitation. In addition, a simple model was proposed which explains the formation of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in cavitating micro-Venturi and also offers explanation on why this is the dominant mechanism of cavitation cloud shedding at small scales.

Topological states of light represent counterintuitive optical modes localized at boundaries of finite-size optical structures that originate from the properties of the bulk. Being defined by bulk properties, such boundary states are insensitive to certain types of perturbations, thus naturally enhancing robustness of photonic circuitries. Conventionally, the N-dimensional bulk modes correspond to (N – 1)-dimensional boundary states. The higher-order bulk-boundary correspondence relates N-dimensional bulk to boundary states with dimensionality reduced by more than 1. A special interest lies in miniaturization of such higher-order topological states to the nanoscale. Here, we realize nanoscale topological corner states in metasurfaces with C6-symmetric honeycomb lattices. We directly observe nanoscale topology-empowered edge and corner localizations of light and enhancement of light–matter interactions via a nonlinear imaging technique. Control of light at the nanoscale empowered by topology may facilitate miniaturization and on-chip integration of classical and quantum photonic devices.

We demonstrate the temporally and spatially controlled nucleation of bulk nanobubbles in water through pulsed laser irradiation with a collimated beam. Transient bubbles appear within the light exposed region once a tension wave passes through. The correlation between illumination and cavitation nucleation provides evidence that gaseous nanobubbles are nucleated in the liquid by a laser pulse with an intensity above 58  MW/cm². We estimate the radius of the nanobubbles through microscopic high-speed imaging and by solving the diffusion equation to be below 420 nm for ∼80% of the bubble population. This technique may provide a novel approach to test theories on existence of stable bulk nanobubbles.

Collapsing cavitation bubbles produce intense microscopic flows. Here, in an aqueous environment, we seed single laser-induced bubbles (diameter about one millimeter) in proximity to a solid surface, in a regime that has not been well explored before in order to generate a “needle jet.” The needle jet propagates at supersonic speed through the gas phase toward the solid. It reaches average velocities of more than 850 ms−1 and thus is an order of magnitude faster than the regular jets that have frequently been observed in cavitation bubbles. The dynamics leading to the needle jet formation are studied with high speed imaging at five million frames per second with femtosecond illumination. This highly repeatable, localized flow phenomenon may be exploited for injection purposes or material processing, and it is expected to generate significantly larger water hammer pressures and may also play a role in cavitation erosion and peening.

Transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy is considered as a powerful technique that reflects the ultrafast dynamics of photogenerated carriers in photoelectric and photocatalysis materials. However, limited by its sensitivity, the photogenerated carrier density in TA measurements of solar energy materials is usually much higher than that in the real working condition. Here, we present a combination of kHz macro-pulse and MHz micro-pulse technique for an ultrahigh sensitive TA spectrometer, which improves the sensitivity to the 10−7 level of ΔOD. It enables us to study ultrafast carrier dynamics pumped by very low power, which can avoid the influence of many-body interactions and the nonlinear effect associated with high carrier density. This work provides a novel TA method with ultrahigh sensitivity, which will play an important role in investigating the carrier dynamics of semiconductors in the working condition.

Rope-like structures are ubiquitous in Nature. They are supermolecular assemblies of macromolecules responsible for the structural and mechanical integrity of plant and animal tissues. Collagen fibrils with diameters between 50 and 500 nm and their helical supermolecular structure are good examples of such nanoscale biological ropes. Like man-made laid ropes, fibrils are typically loaded in tension, and due to their large aspect ratio, they are, in principle, prone to buckling and torsional instabilities. One way to study buckling of a rigid rod is to attach it to a stretched elastic substrate that is then returned to its original length. In the case of single collagen fibrils, the observed behavior depends on the degree of hydration. By going from buckling in ambient conditions to immersed in a buffer, fibrils go from the well-known sine wave response to a localized behavior reminiscent of the bird-caging of laid ropes. In addition, in ambient conditions, the sine wave response coexists with the formation of loops along the length of the fibrils, as observed for the torsional instability of a twisted filament when tension is decreased. This work provides direct evidence that single collagen fibrils are highly susceptible to axial compression because of their helical supermolecular structure. As a result, mammals that use collagen fibrils as their main load-bearing element in many tissues have evolved mitigating strategies that protect single fibrils from axial compression damage.

It is well known that dielectric breakdown in a liquid generates cavitation bubbles and shock waves. Here we demonstrate that when the liquid is bounded by two solid glass boundaries (10–20-μm separation), rings of microscopic bubbles can be nucleated around the laser-induced cavitation bubble. While generally acoustic nucleation is achieved with longitudinal waves of sufficient tension, this work demonstrates that acoustic cavitation can also be generated from transverse waves. Our experiments identify three waves originating at the boundaries: the fastest is the bulk wave in the solid, followed by a leaky Rayleigh wave at the liquid-solid contact, which is trailed by a Lamb-type wave. For the latter, the two solid boundaries act as a wave guide and generate intense and short-lived cavitation activity within the gap. Streak photography and high-speed photography reveal the microsecond-duration cavitation-bubble dynamics, and subpicosecond strobe photography visualizes the mechanism of bubble nucleation from the accelerated surface. Simulations coupling the solid mechanics with the acoustics support the experimentally observed mechanisms of transverse-wave-induced cavitation inception.

FemtoLux 3 laser was used as an illumination source in the wide-field second harmonic generation (SHG) microscope. Relatively high laser pulse energy at a medium pulse repetition frequency allowed for a faster single image acquisition compared to that using laser-scanning. It was also possible to acquire images of relatively large sample areas, which paved the way for the rapid imaging of macroscopic sample areas with microscopic resolution.

The study of topological phases of light underpins a promising paradigm for engineering disorder-immune compact photonic devices with unusual properties. Combined with an optical gain, topological photonic structures provide a novel platform for micro- and nanoscale lasers, which could benefit from nontrivial band topology and spatially localized gap states. Here, we propose and demonstrate experimentally active nanophotonic topological cavities incorporating III–V semiconductor quantum wells as a gain medium in the structure. We observe room-temperature lasing with a narrow spectrum, high coherence, and threshold behaviour. The emitted beam hosts a singularity encoded by a triade cavity mode that resides in the bandgap of two interfaced valley-Hall periodic photonic lattices with opposite parity breaking. Our findings make a step towards topologically controlled ultrasmall light sources with nontrivial radiation characteristics.