Speaker
Vincent Cardin
(Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique)
Description
Using the 100Hz line of the ALLS laboratory (Varennes, QC) we achieved 1.8$\mu$m central wavelength two-cycle pulses with an energy per pulse of more than 4mJ. High energy amplification of a white light OPA output and propagation through a noble gas filled 2m hollow core fiber were needed to obtained this high gain in output energy compared to what was previously achieved for ultrashort 1.8$\mu$m pulses.
We expect this beam to be an ideal seed for a high harmonic generation (HHG) table-top x-ray source since the scaling law for the cut-off of HHG is linear with the laser intensity and the second power of the laser wavelength ($E_{CO}\propto I\lambda^2$). Using ALLS HHG chamber seeded with 1.8$\mu$m pulses, soft x-rays of 500eV were already obtained using 30fs pulses with an energy per pulse of 7mJ while a cut-off of 160eV was obtained with 11fs (1.8 cycle) pulses with an energy per pulse of 0.35mJ.
This presentation will discuss the process behind the few-cycle IR pulses generation, its characteristics and its potential as a high cut-off, high flux, ultrafast, table-top soft x-ray source through HHG. Uses for such a x-rays source will also be discussed.
Author
Vincent Cardin
(Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique)
