Attosecond nonlinear optics using gigawatt-scale isolated attosecond pulses

作者：Takahashi, Eiji J.^*; Lan, Pengfei; Muecke, Oliver D.; Nabekawa, Yasuo; Midorikawa, Katsumi

来源：Nature Communications, 2013, 4(1): 2691.

DOI：10.1038/ncomms3691

• HIGH-ORDER HARMONICS
• EXTREME-ULTRAVIOLET REGION
• FREE-ELECTRON LASER
• LIGHT
• IONIZATION
• GENERATION
• RADIATION
• DYNAMICS
• FIELD

High-energy isolated attosecond pulses required for the most intriguing nonlinear attosecond experiments as well as for attosecond-pump/attosecond-probe spectroscopy are still lacking at present. Here we propose and demonstrate a robust generation method of intense isolated attosecond pulses, which enable us to perform a nonlinear attosecond optics experiment. By combining a two-colour field synthesis and an energy-scaling method of high-order harmonic generation, the maximum pulse energy of the isolated attosecond pulse reaches as high as 1.3 mu J. The generated pulse with a duration of 500 as, as characterized by a nonlinear auto-correlation measurement, is the shortest and highest-energy pulse ever with the ability to induce nonlinear phenomena. The peak power of our tabletop light source reaches 2.6 GW, which even surpasses that of an extreme-ultraviolet free-electron laser.

• 出版日期2013-10