A STUDY ON THE EFFICIENCY AND STABILITY OF HIGH HARMONIC GENERATION FOR APPLICATIONS IN ATTOSECOND SCIENCE

Abstract

In the past few decades, the idea of attosecond laser pulses has shifted from being the culmination of ambitious experimental work to becoming a practical tool with useful, promising applications in many fields of scientific research and engineering. Today, attosecond spectroscopy aims at revealing the hidden world of electron dynamics in matter with unprecedented temporal resolution. To this end, we hereby explain how we produce high-energy, extreme ultraviolet attosecond pulses via High Harmonic Generation, a highly nonlinear process in which a target is illuminated by an intense laser pulse and, under specific conditions, it emits the high harmonics of the driver pulse. We focus our discourse on the efficiency and stability of High Harmonic Generation in our experimental setup. First, we illustrate how a particular type of gas delivery device (a pulsed gas valve) has improved our high harmonic yield. Then, we present a series of experiments aimed at studying the stability of selected nonlinear processes, including HHG; in this context, we include descriptions of home-build detection devices when applicable. Incorporated in this work are frequent mentions of our group's current and future experimental goals in the field of attosecond spectroscopy.