Design of broadband transmission quarter-wave plates for polarization control of isolated attosecond pulses

Abstract

Using a standard Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm, broadband quarter-wave plates (QWPs) with bandwidth from 3 to 18 eV in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) region were designed using aperiodic Mo/Si multilayers. By analyzing the design results of the Mo/Si multiayers with different bilayer numbers, we found that a Mo/Si multilayer with more bilayers can achieve broader phase control, but suffers from lower total throughput and a degree of circular polarization. In addition, the pulse broadenings caused by the group delay dispersions of the designed broadband QWPs were studied, and their layer distributions were investigated. The oscillating distribution of bilayer thickness in optimized multilayers was observed, which is considered to be the reason for forming the broadband phase control. Such broadband QWPs can be applied to generate a circularly polarized broadband EUV source, such as isolated attosecond pulse, directly from a linearly polarized source.