Amplitude and Phase Control of Attosecond Light Pulses

Rodrigo B. Lopez-Martens (1) , Katalin Varjú (1) , Per Johnsson (1) , Johan Mauritsson (1) , Yann Mairesse (2) , Pascal Salières (2) , Mette B. Gaarde (3) , Kenneth J. Schafer (3) , Anders Persson (1) , Sune Svanberg (1) , Claes-Göran Wahlström (1) , Anne L'Huillier (1)

1 Department of Physics
2 SPAM - Service des Photons, Atomes et Molécules
3 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Baton Rouge]

We report the generation, compression, and delivery on target of ultrashort extreme-ultraviolet light pulses using external amplitude and phase control. Broadband harmonic radiation is first generated by focusing an infrared laser with a carefully chosen intensity into a gas cell containing argon atoms. The emitted light then goes through a hard aperture and a thin aluminum filter that selects a 30-eV bandwidth around a 30-eV photon energy and synchronizes all of the components, thereby enabling the formation of a train of almost Fourier-transform-limited single-cycle 170 attosecond pulses. Our experiment demonstrates a practical method for synthesizing and controlling attosecond waveforms.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Rodrigo B. Lopez-Martens, Katalin Varjú, Per Johnsson, Johan Mauritsson, Yann Mairesse, et al.. Amplitude and Phase Control of Attosecond Light Pulses. Physical Review Letters, 2005, 94 (3), pp.033001. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.033001⟩. ⟨hal-00555382⟩