Laser dynamics in nonlinear transparent media with electron plasma generation: effects of electron–hole radiative recombinations

Abstract

Abstract The performance of optical devices manufactured via laser micromachining on nonlinear transparent materials usually relies on three main factors, which are the characteristic laser parameters (i.e. the laser power, pulse duration and pulse repetition rate), the characteristic properties of host materials (e.g. their chromatic dispersions, optical nonlinearities or self-focusing features) and the relative importance of physical processes such as the avalanche impact ionization, multiphoton ionization and electron–hole radiative recombination processes. These factors act in conjunction to impose the regime of laser operation; in particular, their competition determines the appropriate laser operation regime. In this work a theoretical study is proposed to explore the effects of the competition between multiphoton absorption, plasma ionization and electron–hole radiative recombination processes on the laser dynamics in transparent materials with Kerr nonlinearity. The study rests on a model consisting of a K-order nonlinear complex Ginzburg–Landau equation, coupled to a first-order equation describing time variation of the electron plasma density. An analysis of the stability of continuous waves, following the modulational instability approach, reveals that the combination of multiphoton absorption and electron–hole radiative recombination processes can be detrimental or favorable to continuous-wave operation, depending on the group-velocity dispersion of the host medium. Numerical simulations of the model equations in the fully nonlinear regime reveal the existence of pulse trains, the amplitudes of which are enhanced by the radiative recombination processes. Numerical results for the density of the induced electron plasma feature two distinct regimes of time evolution, depending on the strength of the electron–hole radiative recombination processes.