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Main Authors: Morrill, Drew, Hettel, Will, Carlson, Daniel, Shearer, Benjamin, Klein, Clay, Thurston, Jeremy, Golba, Grzegorz, Larsen, Rae, Seifert, Gabriella, Uhrich, James, Lesko, Daniel, Nguyen, Tin Nghia, Arisholm, Gunnar, Knight, Jonathan, Diddams, Scott, Murnane, Margaret, Kapteyn, Henry, Hemmer, Michaël
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.01112
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author Morrill, Drew
Hettel, Will
Carlson, Daniel
Shearer, Benjamin
Klein, Clay
Thurston, Jeremy
Golba, Grzegorz
Larsen, Rae
Seifert, Gabriella
Uhrich, James
Lesko, Daniel
Nguyen, Tin Nghia
Arisholm, Gunnar
Knight, Jonathan
Diddams, Scott
Murnane, Margaret
Kapteyn, Henry
Hemmer, Michaël
author_facet Morrill, Drew
Hettel, Will
Carlson, Daniel
Shearer, Benjamin
Klein, Clay
Thurston, Jeremy
Golba, Grzegorz
Larsen, Rae
Seifert, Gabriella
Uhrich, James
Lesko, Daniel
Nguyen, Tin Nghia
Arisholm, Gunnar
Knight, Jonathan
Diddams, Scott
Murnane, Margaret
Kapteyn, Henry
Hemmer, Michaël
contents High-harmonic upconversion driven by a mid-infrared femtosecond laser can generate coherent soft X-ray beams in a tabletop-scale setup. Here, we report on a compact ytterbium-pumped optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) laser system seeded by an all-fiber front-end and employing periodically-poled lithium niobate (PPLN) nonlinear media operated near the pulse fluence limits of current commercially available PPLN crystals. The OPCPA delivers 3 $μ$m wavelength pulses with 775 $μ$J energy at 1 kHz repetition rate, with transform-limited 120 fs pulse duration, diffraction-limited beam quality, and ultrahigh 0.33% rms energy stability over >18 hours. Using this laser, we generate soft X-ray high harmonics (HHG) in argon gas by focusing into a low-loss, high-pressure gas-filled anti-resonant hollow core fiber (ARHCF), generating coherent light at photon energies up to the argon L-edge (250 eV) and carbon K-edge (284 eV), with high beam quality and ~1% rms energy stability. This work demonstrates soft X-ray HHG in a high-efficiency guided-wave phase matched geometry, overcoming the high losses inherent to mid-IR propagation in unstructured waveguides, or the short interaction lengths of gas cells or jets. The ARHCF can operate long term without damage, and with the repetition rate, stability and robustness required for demanding applications in spectro-microscopy and imaging. Finally, we discuss routes for maximizing the soft X-ray HHG flux by driving He at higher laser intensities using either 1.5 $μ$m or 3 $μ$m - the signal and idler wavelengths of the laser.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_01112
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Soft X-ray high-harmonic generation in an anti-resonant hollow core fiber driven by a 3 $μ$m ultrafast laser
Morrill, Drew
Hettel, Will
Carlson, Daniel
Shearer, Benjamin
Klein, Clay
Thurston, Jeremy
Golba, Grzegorz
Larsen, Rae
Seifert, Gabriella
Uhrich, James
Lesko, Daniel
Nguyen, Tin Nghia
Arisholm, Gunnar
Knight, Jonathan
Diddams, Scott
Murnane, Margaret
Kapteyn, Henry
Hemmer, Michaël
Optics
High-harmonic upconversion driven by a mid-infrared femtosecond laser can generate coherent soft X-ray beams in a tabletop-scale setup. Here, we report on a compact ytterbium-pumped optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) laser system seeded by an all-fiber front-end and employing periodically-poled lithium niobate (PPLN) nonlinear media operated near the pulse fluence limits of current commercially available PPLN crystals. The OPCPA delivers 3 $μ$m wavelength pulses with 775 $μ$J energy at 1 kHz repetition rate, with transform-limited 120 fs pulse duration, diffraction-limited beam quality, and ultrahigh 0.33% rms energy stability over >18 hours. Using this laser, we generate soft X-ray high harmonics (HHG) in argon gas by focusing into a low-loss, high-pressure gas-filled anti-resonant hollow core fiber (ARHCF), generating coherent light at photon energies up to the argon L-edge (250 eV) and carbon K-edge (284 eV), with high beam quality and ~1% rms energy stability. This work demonstrates soft X-ray HHG in a high-efficiency guided-wave phase matched geometry, overcoming the high losses inherent to mid-IR propagation in unstructured waveguides, or the short interaction lengths of gas cells or jets. The ARHCF can operate long term without damage, and with the repetition rate, stability and robustness required for demanding applications in spectro-microscopy and imaging. Finally, we discuss routes for maximizing the soft X-ray HHG flux by driving He at higher laser intensities using either 1.5 $μ$m or 3 $μ$m - the signal and idler wavelengths of the laser.
title Soft X-ray high-harmonic generation in an anti-resonant hollow core fiber driven by a 3 $μ$m ultrafast laser
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.01112