Abstract
Attosecond experiments involving focusing of attosecond light pulses can suffer from a spread of the attosecond radiation both in space and time due to optical aberrations. We present a detailed numerical study of the distortions induced in the most common focusing geometries that make use of parabolic, spherical, toroidal and ellipsoidal mirrors. We deduce the consequences on the pulse duration and possible issues that could arise in applications of attosecond pulses. This should serve as a guideline for setting up attosecond focusing optics.
Highlights
Attosecond light pulses in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) range have been a very active research field since their first observation in 2001 [1, 2]. Such pulses can be generated by the interaction between an intense femtosecond laser pulse and a gaseous or solid target. This process is known as high harmonic generation and has led to a variety of experiments in the past ten years
We presented tools developed to analyze the impact of optical aberrations when focusing attosecond pulses
We have shown that in these geometries, aberrations can lead to important pulse distortions
Summary
Attosecond light pulses in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) range have been a very active research field since their first observation in 2001 [1, 2] Such pulses can be generated by the interaction between an intense femtosecond laser pulse and a gaseous or solid target. The induced interaction enables one to characterise the temporal profile of the attosecond emission [5, 6], to study nonlinear XUV processes [7] or to perform electronic spectroscopy [8, 9] In all these cases, focusing the attosecond radiation onto the target is a compulsory requirement. When used to focus broadband ultrashort radiation, aberrations can have an impact on the spatiotemporal shape of the light pulse as well They can lead to so-called space-time coupling [12], that means that the pulse profile is spatially dependent. We conclude on the consequences of the induced distortions on the pulse duration
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