Parametric amplification of attosecond pulse trains at 11 nm

J Seres; E Seres; B Landgraf; B Ecker; B Aurand; A Hoffmann; G Winkler; S Namba; T Kuehl; C Spielmann

doi:10.1038/srep04254

Parametric amplification of attosecond pulse trains at 11 nm

Sci Rep. 2014 Mar 5:4:4254. doi: 10.1038/srep04254.

Authors

J Seres¹, E Seres², B Landgraf³, B Ecker⁴, B Aurand⁵, A Hoffmann⁶, G Winkler⁷, S Namba⁸, T Kuehl⁴, C Spielmann³

Affiliations

¹ 1] Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics, Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich Schiller University, Max Wien Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany [2] Institute of Atomic and Subatomic Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Stadionalle 2, 1020 Vienna, Austria.
² 1] Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics, Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich Schiller University, Max Wien Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany [2] Institute of Atomic and Subatomic Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Stadionalle 2, 1020 Vienna, Austria [3] Wolfgang Pauli Institute, CNRS UMI 2842, Nordbergstrasse 15, 1090 Vienna, Austria [4] Helmholtz Institute Jena, Fröbelstieg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany.
³ 1] Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics, Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich Schiller University, Max Wien Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany [2] Helmholtz Institute Jena, Fröbelstieg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany.
⁴ 1] Helmholtz Institute Jena, Fröbelstieg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany [2] GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, Planckstrasse 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany.
⁵ 1] Helmholtz Institute Jena, Fröbelstieg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany [2] GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, Planckstrasse 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany [3].
⁶ Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics, Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich Schiller University, Max Wien Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany.
⁷ Institute of Atomic and Subatomic Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Stadionalle 2, 1020 Vienna, Austria.
⁸ Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University, 1-4-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8527, Japan.

Abstract

We report the first experimental demonstration of the parametric amplification of attosecond pulse trains at around 11 nm. The helium amplifier is driven by intense laser pulses and seeded by high-order harmonics pulses generated in a neon gas jet. Our measurements suggest that amplification takes place only if the seed pulse-trains are perfectly synchronized in time with the driving laser field in the amplifier. Varying the delay, we estimate the durations of the individual extreme ultraviolet pulses within the train to be on the order of 0.2 fs. Our results demonstrate that strong-field parametric amplification can be a suitable tool to amplify weak attosecond pulses from non-destructive pump-probe experiments and it is an important step towards designing amplifiers for realization of energetic XUV pulses with sub-femtosecond duration using compact lasers fitting in university laboratories.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't