Abstract
The design of grating-based instruments to handle and condition coherent ultrafast pulses in the extreme-ultraviolet is discussed. The main application of such instruments is the monochromatization of high-order laser harmonics and free-electron-laser pulses in the femtosecond time scale. Broad-band monochromators require the use of diffraction gratings at grazing incidence. A grating can be used for the spectral selection of ultrashort pulses without altering the pulse duration in a significant way, provided that the number of illuminated grooves is equal to the resolution. We discuss here the design conditions to be fulfilled by a grating monochromator that does not increase the pulse duration significantly longer than the Fourier limit.
Highlights
The developments in laser technology over the last decades have led to the generation of optical pulses as short as a few femtoseconds, providing a unique tool for high-resolution time-domain spectroscopy that has revolutionized many areas of science [1,2]
While femtosecond optical lasers have offered unique insights into ultrafast dynamics, they are limited by the fact that the structural arrangement and motion of nuclei are not directly accessible from measured optical properties. This scientific gap has been filled by the availability of ultrafast pulsed sources in the extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) and soft X-rays, such as high-order laser harmonics (HHs) and free-electron-lasers (FELs), that make it possible to apply time-resolved spectroscopic techniques in the X-rays [2]
Monochromators monochromator—the schematics are shown in Figure 2—S is the width of the input slit
Summary
The developments in laser technology over the last decades have led to the generation of optical pulses as short as a few femtoseconds, providing a unique tool for high-resolution time-domain spectroscopy that has revolutionized many areas of science [1,2]. In the first case, adopting a single-grating design, a residual pulse-front tilt has to be accepted at the output of the monochromator. It follows that the diffraction from a grating gives a lower limit for the tilt of the pulse-front that is. The single-grating design can be adopted for the monochromatization of ultrashort pulses without altering the pulse duration beyond the Fourier limit in a significant way, provided that the number of illuminated grooves times the diffracted order is equal to the actual resolution. We discuss the design of single-grating monochromators applied to ultrafast pulses pulses in the XUV and soft X-rays.
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