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Phase-matched extreme-ultraviolet frequency-comb generation

Nature Photonics volume 12, pages 387–391 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Laser-driven high-order harmonic generation1,2 provides spatially3 and temporally4 coherent tabletop sources of broadband extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) light. These sources typically operate at low repetition rates, frep ≲ 100 kHz, where phase-matched HHG is readily achieved5,6. However, many applications demand the improved counting statistics or frequency-comb precision afforded by high repetition rates, frep > 10 MHz. Unfortunately, at such high frep, phase matching is prevented by steady-state plasma accumulated in the generation volume7,8,9,10,11, strongly limiting the XUV average power. Here, we use high-temperature gas mixtures as the generation medium to increase the gas translational velocity, thereby reducing the steady-state plasma in the laser focus. This allows phase-matched XUV emission inside a femtosecond enhancement cavity at frep = 77 MHz, enabling a record generated power of ~ 2 mW in a single harmonic order. This power scaling opens up many demanding applications, including XUV frequency-comb spectroscopy12,13 of few-electron atoms and ions for precision tests of fundamental physical laws and constants14,15,16,17,18,19,20.

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Fig. 1: Plasma dynamics in high-repetition-rate high-harmonic generation.
Fig. 2: Phase-matching high-repetition-rate high-harmonic generation.
Fig. 3: Power scaling of high-repetition-rate high-harmonic generation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant FA9550-15-1-0111, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Science Foundation Physics Frontier Center at JILA (PHY-1734006). C.M.H. was supported by the Swedish Research Council. K.L.C. acknowledges the support of the JILA Visiting Fellows Program.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Gil Porat, Christoph M. Heyl, Stephen B. Schoun.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. JILA, NIST and the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Gil Porat, Christoph M. Heyl, Stephen B. Schoun, Craig Benko, Kristan L. Corwin & Jun Ye

  2. Department of Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Christoph M. Heyl

  3. University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, VCQ, Vienna, Austria

    Nadine Dörre

  4. Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA

    Kristan L. Corwin

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  1. Gil Porat
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the design, planning and execution of the experiment. G.P., C.M.H., S.B.S., C.B. and J.Y. analysed the data. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Gil Porat or Jun Ye.

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Porat, G., Heyl, C.M., Schoun, S.B. et al. Phase-matched extreme-ultraviolet frequency-comb generation. Nature Photon 12, 387–391 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-018-0199-z

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