Oblique Bragg-Doppler scattering at relativistic grating created by backward Raman amplification in hydrogen

Abstract

We report the first observation of relativistic "Bragg-Doppler" reflection, which occurs when a light beam is incident on a fine-period phase grating moving at close to the speed of light. The grating is created in hydrogen-filled hollow-core fibre by seeded backward stimulated Raman scattering, which creates an intense coherence wave of molecular vibrations at 125 THz, with wavelength 299 nm, moving at ~c/8. When this grating is obliquely probed at a generalized Bragg angle, a reflected beam emerges, Doppler-shifted by 125 THz. The effect is also uni-directional, as phase-matching is strongly violated when the probe beam is reversed, so may be viewed as an ultra-high frequency Bragg-cell frequency-shifter. The wide transparency window of hydrogen allows frequency shifting of radiation from the visible to the vacuum UV, simply by tuning the incident angle. The results open up new opportunities for spatio-temporal studies of coherence wave dynamics, frequency conversion in difficult-to-access spectral regions such as the deep and vacuum UV, and quantum-state-preserving frequency conversion of single photons.