High-order harmonic source spanning up to the oxygen K-edge based on filamentation pulse compression

Schmidt, Cédric; Pertot, Yoann; Balčiūnas, Tadas; Zinchenko, Kristina; Matthews, Mary; Wörner, Hans Jakob; Wolf, Jean‐Pierre

doi:10.1364/oe.26.011834

Cited by 58 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Photon energies extending up to 1.6 keV were generated at 20 Hz repetition rate [5]. Recently, multiple research groups have developed 1-kHz laser sources capable of producing coherent soft x-ray (SXR) radiation spanning up to the oxygen K-edge at 543 eV [6][7][8]. Such high-photon-energy sources are interesting for a variety of spectroscopic studies since core electrons can be accessed directly.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Water window soft x-ray source enabled by a 25 W few-cycle 2.2 µm OPCPA at 100 kHz

Pupeikis

Chevreuil

Bigler

et al. 2020

Optica

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Coherent soft x-ray (SXR) sources enable fundamental studies in the important water window spectral region. Until now, such sources have been limited to repetition rates of 1 kHz or less, which limits count rates and signal-to-noise ratio for a variety of experiments. SXR generation at high repetition rate has remained challenging because of the missing high-power mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser sources to drive the high-harmonic generation (HHG) process. Here we present a mid-IR optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) centered at a wavelength of 2.2 µm and generating 16.5-fs pulses (2.2 oscillation cycles of the carrier wave) with 25 W of average power and a peak power exceeding 14 GW at 100-kHz pulse repetition rate. This corresponds to the highest reported peak power for high-repetition-rate mid-IR laser systems. The output of this 2.2-µm OPCPA system was used to generate a SXR continuum extending beyond 0.6 keV through HHG in a high-pressure gas cell. MainProgress in laser technology has enabled rapid development in attosecond science which led to many scientific discoveries [1,2]. Further advances in attosecond science are closely linked to high-harmonic generation (HHG) sources [3,4], and therefore to state-of-the-art laser systems to drive the HHG process into new performance frontiers. Specifically, there is currently great interest in scaling HHG sources to parameters beyond those available in conventional Ti:sapphire amplifier driven beamlines, in particular to higher photon energies and higher repetition rates. Photon energies extending up to 1.6 keV were generated at 20 Hz repetition rate [5]. Recently, multiple research groups have developed 1-kHz laser sources capable of producing coherent soft x-ray (SXR) radiation spanning up to the oxygen K-edge at 543 eV [6][7][8]. Such high-photon-energy sources are interesting for a variety of spectroscopic studies since core electrons can be accessed directly. For example, this enables direct probing of biological molecules in aqueous solutions [9], tracking of electronic, vibrational and rotational [10] as well as magnetization dynamics [8]. Furthermore, the high photon energies allow for the shortest probe pulses ever produced [11]. On the other hand, high repetition rates are especially important for applications limited by space-charge effects, such as the investigation of photoemission delays from surfaces [12,13]. The coherent SXR radiation in the above examples is generated via HHG. At a given intensity I and carrier wavelength λ, the maximum energy of the generated photons scales with ~I·λ 2 of the driving laser field [14]. Thus, to obtain a high-energy cut-off without excessive ionization of the target, which would prevent phasematching, mid-IR driving lasers are required. Longer driving wavelengths also give rise to higher phasematching pressures, which increases the number of potential emitters [15]. On the other hand, the singleatom yield drops rapidly with wavelength, with a scaling of around ~λ -5.5 for a fixed energy interval [16]. This ...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Water window soft x-ray source enabled by a 25 W few-cycle 2.2 µm OPCPA at 100 kHz

Pupeikis

Chevreuil

Bigler

et al. 2020

Optica

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“…The maximum flux obtained integrated across the water window spectral region is [1.4 ± 0.4] × 10 9 photons/s, or 77 pJ per pulse, one order of magnitude higher than previous water window attosecond sources 11,24,29 , though recent work with capillary HHG, which has not yet been shown to support isolated attosecond pulse generation, has achieved higher overall fluxes 30 . Our source is capable of performing X-ray near-edge absorption spectroscopy (XANES) measurements on a timescale shorter than typical synchrotron sources 31 .…”

Section: Xanes Spectrum At the N2 K-edgementioning

confidence: 80%

“…This analysis is supported by the literature; previous work in the water window with gas jets required backing pressures of tens of bars, which in turn required the use of a solenoid valve pulsed jet to maintain reasonable chamber pressures 22 . More recent work has primarily used longer gas cells (several millimeters in extent) 6,23,24 , for the superior pressure scaling -the importance of thin targets has only recently been realized 11 . For this reason we have opted to use a thin gas cell as the harmonic target, made up of an 800 µm OD, 720 µm ID stainless steel needle (VWR).…”

Section: High-pressure Harmonic Gas Targetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apparatus for soft x-ray table-top high harmonic generation

Johnson

Wood

Austin

et al. 2018

Review of Scientific Instruments

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There has been considerable recent interest in tabletop soft X-ray attosecond sources enabled by the new generation of intense, few-cycle laser sources at operating wavelengths longer than 800 nm. In our recent work [Johnson , Sci. Adv.(5), eaar3761 (2018)], we have demonstrated a new regime for the generation of X-ray attosecond pulses in the water window (284-540 eV) by high-harmonic generation, which resulted in soft X-ray fluxes of ≈10 photons/s and a maximum photon energy of 600 eV, an order of magnitude and 50 eV higher, respectively, than previously attained with few-cycle drivers. Here we present the key elements of our apparatus for the generation and detection of soft X-ray high harmonic radiation in the water window. Of critical importance is a differentially pumped gas target capable of supporting the multi-atmospheric pressures required to phase-match the high energy emission while strongly constraining the gas density, suppressing the effects of ionization and absorption outside the interaction region.

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“…2.1). Recently, at 1.8 µm central wavelength 11.8 fs, sub-2-cycle pulses with 2.1 mJ were obtained at a peak power of 0.2 TW by a two-stage argon filament compressor [83]. In this work the short pulses were successfully used to generate high-harmonics in a helium-filled gas cell covering the entire water window.…”

Section: Filamentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-energy few-cycle pulses: post-compression techniques

Nagy

Simon

Veisz

2020

Advances in Physics: X

100

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Contemporary ultrafast science requires reliable sources of high-energy few-cycle light pulses. Currently two methods are capable of generating such pulses: post compression of short laser pulses and optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA). Here we give a comprehensive overview on the post-compression technology based on optical Kerr-effect or ionization, with particular emphasis on energy and power scaling. Relevant types of post compression techniques are discussed including free propagation in bulk materials, multiple-plate continuum generation, multi-pass cells, filaments, photonic-crystal fibers, hollow-core fibers and self-compression techniques. We provide a short theoretical overview of the physics as well as an in-depth description of existing experimental realizations of post compression, especially those that can provide few-cycle pulse duration with mJ-scale pulse energy. The achieved experimental performances of these methods are compared in terms of important figures of merit such as pulse energy, pulse duration, peak power and average power. We give some perspectives at the end to emphasize the expected future trends of this technology.

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High-order harmonic source spanning up to the oxygen K-edge based on filamentation pulse compression

Cited by 58 publications

References 39 publications

Water window soft x-ray source enabled by a 25 W few-cycle 2.2 µm OPCPA at 100 kHz

Water window soft x-ray source enabled by a 25 W few-cycle 2.2 µm OPCPA at 100 kHz

Apparatus for soft x-ray table-top high harmonic generation

High-energy few-cycle pulses: post-compression techniques

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