Ultraviolet surprise: Efficient soft x-ray high-harmonic generation in multiply ionized plasmas

Abstract

The shortest laser pulses—with durations measured in attoseconds—arise from a process termed high-harmonic generation (HHG). Essentially, a longer, “driving” pulse draws electrons out of gaseous atoms like a slingshot, and, when they ricochet back, light emerges at shorter wavelengths. Most HHG has been carried out using light near the visible/infrared boundary for the driving pulse. Popmintchev et al. used an ultraviolet driving pulse instead, which yielded an unexpectedly efficient outcome. These results could presage a more generally efficient means of creating x-ray pulses for fundamental dynamics studies as well as technological applications.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Dec 04, 2015
Source ID
10.1126/science.aac9755

Entities

People

  • Agnieszka Jaron-Becker
  • Alexander L. Gaeta
  • Amelia Hankla
  • Andreas Becker
  • Bonggu Shim
  • Carlos Hernández-García
  • Christopher P Mancuso
  • Dimitar Popmintchev
  • Dmitri A. Romanov
  • Franklin J Dollar
  • Henry Kapteyn
  • Jim A. Gaffney
  • Jose A. Pérez-hernández
  • Luis Plaja
  • Margaret M. Murnane
  • Mark Foord
  • Maryam Tarazkar
  • Ming-chang Chen
  • Robert J Levis
  • Stephen B Libby
  • Tenio Popmintchev
  • Xiaohui Gao

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • Cornell University
  • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness
  • National Science Foundation
  • National Science and Technology Council
  • National Tsing Hua University
  • Seventh Framework Programme
  • Temple University
  • United States Department of Energy
  • University of Colorado
  • University of Salamanca

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion Dynamics and Shock Wave Physics.
  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics