Progress on table-top isolated attosecond light sources

Research on isolated attosecond pulses (IAPs) based on high-order harmonic generation changed substantially around 2010. Before then, the Ti:sapphire laser was the de facto standard as the driving light source, so the cutoff energy was limited to ~100 eV. After 2010, the mid-infrared optical paramet...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature photonics Vol. 16; no. 4; pp. 267 - 278
Main Author Midorikawa, Katsumi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.04.2022
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects
639/624/400/3923
639/766/1130/2799
Applied and Technical Physics
Attosecond pulses
Efficiency
Energy
Harmonic generations
Lasers
Light
Light sources
Luminous intensity
Parametric amplifiers
Photonics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Pulse duration
Quantum Physics
Review Article
Sapphire
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Summary:Research on isolated attosecond pulses (IAPs) based on high-order harmonic generation changed substantially around 2010. Before then, the Ti:sapphire laser was the de facto standard as the driving light source, so the cutoff energy was limited to ~100 eV. After 2010, the mid-infrared optical parametric amplifier became the mainstream driving source. The shortest pulse width of an IAP has reached ~50 as, an intensity over a gigawatt has been achieved, and the photon energy has been extended to 500 eV. However, owing to the low flux of IAPs, the use of IAPs is still limited in terms of applications. Here we focus on the vigorous efforts in the past decade to extend the performance of IAPs. Recent progress of table-top isolated attosecond light sources is reviewed with a focus on the related technologies for high-average-flux and high-peak-intensity attosecond bursts of light. An outlook on its applications is also provided.
ISSN:1749-4885
1749-4893
DOI:10.1038/s41566-022-00961-9