Amplitude and Phase Control of Attosecond Light Pulses

López-Martens, Rodrigo; Varjú, Katalin; Johnsson, Per; Mauritsson, Johan; Mairesse, Y.; Salières, P.; Gaarde, Mette B.; Schafer, Kenneth J.; Persson, Anders; Svanberg, Sune; Wahlström, C.-G.; L’Huillier, Anne

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.94.033001

Cited by 389 publications

(270 citation statements)

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“…3a), a train of attosecond pulses, generated through high-order harmonic generation in argon 18 , is used to ionize argon, resulting in a train of electron wave packets with 200±30-attosecond duration, a central kinetic energy of 11 eV and a bandwidth of 11 eV. The pulse duration of the electron wave packets are determined by a RABITT (reconstruction of attosecond beating by interference of two-photon transition) analysis 3 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Attosecond electron wave packet interferometry

et al. 2006

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A complete quantum-mechanical description of matter and its interaction with the environment requires detailed knowledge of a number of complex parameters. In particular, information about the phase of wavefunctions is important for predicting the behaviour of atoms, molecules or larger systems. In optics, information about the evolution of the phase of light in time 1 and space 2 is obtained by interferometry. To obtain similar information for atoms and molecules, it is vital to develop analogous techniques. Here we present an interferometric method for determining the phase variation of electronic wave packets in momentum space, and demonstrate its applicability to the fundamental process of single-photon ionization. We use a sequence of extreme-ultraviolet attosecond pulses 3,4 to ionize argon atoms and an infrared laser field, which induces a momentum shear 5 between consecutive electron wave packets. The interferograms that result from the interaction of these wave packets provide useful information about their phase. This technique opens a promising new avenue for reconstructing the wavefunctions 6,7 of atoms and molecules and for following the ultrafast dynamics of electronic wave packets.

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confidence: 99%

Attosecond electron wave packet interferometry

et al. 2006

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“…This attochirp can be partially compensated by propagating the pulses in a suitable dispersive medium [34,35]. In Fig.…”

Section: Wavelength Scaling Of Harmonic Efficiency and Attochirpmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They may be compensated using a "plasma compressor" [35] because free electrons induce a negative group velocity dispersion, or by thin filters with linear negative group velocity dispersion [34]. But attochirp is inversely proportional to laser wavelength [33].…”

Section: Off-axis Harmonics In the Far Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory of Nonlinear Propagation of High Harmonics Generated in a Gaseous Medium

Jin

2013

Springer Theses

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In this thesis, we establish the theoretical tools to investigate high-order harmonic generation (HHG) by intense infrared lasers in a gaseous medium. The macroscopic propagation of both the fundamental and the harmonic fields is taken into account by solving Maxwell's wave equations, while the single-atom (or single-molecule) response is obtained by quantitative rescattering theory. The initial spatial mode of the fundamental laser is assumed either a Gaussian or a truncated Bessel beam. On the examples of Ar, N 2 and CO 2 , we demonstrate that the available experimental HHG spectra with isotropic and aligned target media can be accurately reproduced theoretically even though the HHG spectra are sensitive to the experimental conditions. We show that the macroscopic HHG can be expressed as a product of a macroscopic wave packet and a photorecombination cross section, where the former depends on laser and experimental conditions while the latter is the property of the target only. The factorization makes it possible to retrieve the single-atom or single-molecule structure information from experimental HHG spectra. As for the multiple molecular orbital contribution in HHG, it causes the disappearance of the minimum in the HHG spectrum of aligned N 2 with the increase of laser intensity, and the position of minimum in HHG spectrum of aligned CO 2 depending on many factors is also attributed to it, which could explain why the minima observed in different laboratories may differ. For an important application of HHG as ultrashort light source, we show that measured continuous harmonic spectrum of Xe due to the reshaping of the fundamental laser field can be used to produce an isolated attosecond pulse by spectral and spatial filtering in the far field. For on-going application of using HHG to ionize aligned molecules, we present the photoelectron angular distribution from aligned N 2 and CO 2 in the laboratory frame, which can be compared directly with future experiments. demonstrate that the available experimental HHG spectra with isotropic and aligned target media can be accurately reproduced theoretically even though the HHG spectra are sensitive to the experimental conditions. We show that the macroscopic HHG can be expressed as a product of a macroscopic wave packet and a photorecombination cross section, where the former depends on laser and experimental conditions while the latter is the property of the target only. The factorization makes it possible to retrieve the single-atom or single-molecule structure information from experimental HHG spectra. As for the multiple molecular orbital contribution in HHG, it causes the disappearance of the minimum in the HHG spectrum of aligned N 2 with the increase of laser intensity, and the position of minimum in HHG spectrum of aligned CO 2 depending on many factors is also attributed to it, which could explain why the minima observed in different laboratories may differ. For an important application of HHG as ultrashort light source, we show that measured continu...

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“…Such a kind of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) provides a new type of coherence light source of extremely short wavelength that can be widely used in many fields such as attosecond pulse generation [1,2], plasma spectroscopy [3], and x-ray fluorescence analysis [4]. These applications make HHG an important nonlinear effect in the study of intense laser physics, and thus HHG has become a hot topic and has been well investigated in the last two decades.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intensity-dependent interference effect in high-order harmonic generation from alignedH2 +molecules

Zhang

et al. 2011

Phys. Rev. A

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Based on the nonperturbative quantum scattering theory of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) and using the linear combination of atomic orbitals theory of molecular orbitals, we derive the HHG rate formula for molecules. Employing the formula, we study the intensity dependence of the interference effect induced by the molecular structure. We find that the molecular HHG was modulated by the interference not only in the recombination process but also in the ionization process. The location of the interference minimum in HHG shifts to higher energy by a quantity of the ponderomotive energy as the laser intensity increases.

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Amplitude and Phase Control of Attosecond Light Pulses

Cited by 389 publications

References 26 publications

Attosecond electron wave packet interferometry

Attosecond electron wave packet interferometry

Theory of Nonlinear Propagation of High Harmonics Generated in a Gaseous Medium

Intensity-dependent interference effect in high-order harmonic generation from alignedH2 +molecules

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