Bright extreme-ultraviolet high-order-harmonic radiation from optimized pulse compression in short hollow waveguides

• Main Authors: Butcher, Thomas (Author), Anderson, P.N (Author), Chapman, Richard (Author), Horak, P. (Author), Frey, J.G (Author), Brocklesby, W.S (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013-04-16.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Multimodal nonlinear propagation dominates the evolution of intense laser pulses propagating in high pressure gas-filled capillaries used for high harmonic generation. A fully multimodal nonlinear propagation model is used to predict pulse evolution along such a capillary, and the length and pressure distribution optimised to produce the shortest pulses at the capillary output. This optimisation is shown theoretically to result in self compression of the pulse from ~53 fs to ~7 fs, and shown experimentally to increase the flux of high harmonic radiation from the capillary by an order of magnitude over comparable capillary and gas jet designs.