The development of attosecond pump–probe experiments at high repetition rate requires the development of novel attosecond sources maintaining a sufficient number of photons per pulse. We use 7 fs, 800 nm pulses from a non-collinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplification laser system to generate few-pulse attosecond pulse trains (APTs) with a flux of >106 photons per shot in the extreme ultraviolet at a repetition rate of 100 kHz. The pulse trains have been fully characterised by recording frequency-resolved optical gating for complete reconstruction of attosecond bursts (FROG-CRAB) traces with a velocity map imaging spectrometer. For the pulse retrieval from the FROG-CRAB trace a new ensemble retrieval algorithm has been employed that enables the reconstruction of the shape of the APTs in the presence of carrier envelope phase fluctuations of the few-cycle laser system.

The generation of coherent light pulses in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) spectral region with attosecond pulse durations constitutes the foundation of the field of attosecond science. Twenty years after the first demonstration of isolated attosecond pulses, they continue to be a unique tool enabling the observation and control of electron dynamics in atoms, molecules, and solids. It has long been identified that an increase in the repetition rate of attosecond light sources is necessary for many applications in atomic and molecular physics, surface science, and imaging. Although high harmonic generation (HHG) at repetition rates exceeding 100 kHz, showing a continuum in the cutoff region of the XUV spectrum, was already demonstrated in 2013, the number of photons per pulse was insufficient to perform pulse characterization via attosecond streaking, let alone to perform a pump-probe experiment. Here we report on the generation and full characterization of XUV attosecond pulses via HHG driven by near-single-cycle pulses at a repetition rate of 100 kHz. The high number of 10 6 XUV photons per pulse on target enables attosecond electron streaking experiments through which the XUV pulses are determined to consist of a dominant single attosecond pulse. These results open the door for attosecond pump-probe spectroscopy studies at a repetition rate 1 or 2 orders of magnitude above current implementations.

Theoretical and experimental evaluation of the photodarkening effect as a heat source in ytterbium doped fibers is presented. An additional non-radiative decay channel that opens after photodarkening the fiber is identified via fluorescence lifetime reduction and as an additional heat source proportional to inversion. It is included in the heat source model which was tested on a core-pumped fiber amplifiers. High temperature elevation at low pump powers shows potential heat-related problems in high inversion systems that are more susceptible to photodarkening.

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An important trend in Extreme UV (EUV) and Soft X-ray FEL development in the last years has been the use of seeding by an external laser, aimed to improve the coherence and stability of the generated pulses. The High Gain Harmonic generation (HGHG) seeding technique was first implemented at FERMI and provided FEL radiation having high coherence as well as intensity and wavelength stability comparable to table-top ultrafast lasers. At FERMI, the seed laser has another very important function: it is the source of external laser pulses used in pump-probe experiments allowing to achieve a record-low timing jitter. This paper describes the design, performance and operational modes of the FERMI seed laser in both single-and double cascade scheme. In addition, the planned upgrade of the system to meet the challenges of the upgrade to Echo Enabled Harmonic Generation mode (EEHG) is presented.