Editor's Summary
5 June 2008
Extreme UV made easier
The properties of coherent EUV (extreme ultraviolet) light make it a prime candidate for exciting technological applications. At present though, the equipment needed to generate the short wavelength light is costly and bulky. A new system described in this issue could reduce both cost and bulk. It uses the conventional principle of high-harmonic generation via the interaction of a femtosecond laser pulse with a gas, but adopts a novel concept of amplifying light via local plasmon field enhancement. The beam from a modest femtosecond laser is focused onto a nanostructure consisting of bow-tie-shaped gold elements on a sapphire substrate. This may enable the construction of a laptop-sized EUV light source at a reasonable cost.
News and Views: Attosecond physics: An easier route to high harmony
The generation of ultrashort light pulses by atomic ionization and recombination doesn't come cheap. But by niftily exploiting the play of light on a nanostructured surface, it can be done on a table-top.
Mark I. Stockman
doi:10.1038/453731a
Letter: High-harmonic generation by resonant plasmon field enhancement
Seungchul Kim, Jonghan Jin, Young-Jin Kim, In-Yong Park, Yunseok Kim & Seung-Woo Kim
doi:10.1038/nature07012
