Bright coherent ultrahigh harmonics in the keV x-ray regime from mid-infrared femtosecond lasers.
Summary of "Bright coherent ultrahigh harmonics in the keV x-ray regime from mid-infrared femtosecond lasers."
High-harmonic generation (HHG) traditionally combines ~100 near-infrared laser photons to generate bright, phase-matched, extreme ultraviolet beams when the emission from many atoms adds constructively. Here, we show that by guiding a mid-infrared femtosecond laser in a high-pressure gas, ultrahigh harmonics can be generated, up to orders greater than 5000, that emerge as a bright supercontinuum that spans the entire electromagnetic spectrum from the ultraviolet to more than 1.6 kilo-electron volts, allowing, in principle, the generation of pulses as short as 2.5 attoseconds. The multiatmosphere gas pressures required for bright, phase-matched emission also support laser beam self-confinement, further enhancing the x-ray yield. Finally, the x-ray beam exhibits high spatial coherence, even though at high gas density the recolliding electrons responsible for HHG encounter other atoms during the emission process.
Affiliation
JILA, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. popmintchev@jila.colorado.edu
Journal Details
This article was published in the following journal.
Name: Science (New York, N.Y.)
ISSN: 1095-9203
Pages: 1287-91
Links
- PubMed Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22679093
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1218497
Medical and Biotech [MESH] Definitions
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An optical source that emits photons in a coherent beam. Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (LASER) is brought about using devices that transform light of varying frequencies into a single intense, nearly nondivergent beam of monochromatic radiation. Lasers operate in the infrared, visible, ultraviolet, or X-ray regions of the spectrum.
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Glare
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