Efficient generation of relativistic near-single-cycle mid-infrared pulses in plasmas

(Light Publishing Center, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics And Physics, Chinese Academy) Intense few-cycle optical pulses in the mid-infrared region are of great importance yet difficult to obtain with normal optical materials and techniques. To deal with this challenge, scientists in China and the UK proposed a scheme by use of plasma as a nonlinear optical medium, which can efficiently generate relativistic multi-millijoule near-single-cycle mid-infrared pulses at ~5 microns. This...