Multiphoton EUV Photonics

Margaret Murnane, University of Colorado

During the past decade, there has been a revolution in the field of ultrafast science. Visible light pulses of only a few optical cycles in duration can be generated from a simple laser. These pulses can then be amplified to high peak powers, and used to convert visible laser beams into coherent, ultrafast, x-ray beams. By controlling the shape and phase of the driving laser pulse, we can control the phase of the electron as it ionizes in the intense field of the laser. This allows us to control the phase of the coherent x-ray beams on a sub-cycle, attosecond, timescale to increase the efficiency of the process. Moreover, using concepts from visible wavelength photonics, it is now possible to extend nonlinear optics well into the x-ray region of the spectrum. Finally, applications of ultrafast x-rays in monitoring molecular dynamics on surfaces will also be discussed.

Randy Bartels et al., Nature 406, 164 (2000); Science 297, 376 (2002).Emily A. Gibson et al., Science 302, 95 (2003); to be published in PRL (2004).

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