Quantum Design of Coherent X-Rays with Tunable Properties

 

QUANTUM X-Ray Laser with Tunable Spectral, Temporal Shape, and Spin and Orbital Angular Momentum

 

Rapidly emerging just an year after the invention of the laser in 1960, nonlinear optics revolutionized the ability to create directed, laser-like beams particularly in the regions of the electromagnetic spectrum where lasers based on conventional concepts are not practical. New breakthroughs in extreme nonlinear optics promise a similar revolution in the X-ray regime. The X-ray wavelengths are about 1000 times shorter than those of visible rays, and range between the wavelengths of the longer-wavelength UV rays and the shorter-wavelength gamma rays:

Soft X-rays: 10 nm – 0.1 nm/100 eV – 10 keV.
Hard X-rays: 0.1 nm – 0.01 nm/10 keV – 100 keV.

The team in our quantum-design X-ray labs is investigating the fundamental atomic limits of the extreme nonlinear optical process of high harmonic generation, and its phase matching and group velocity matching limits in the soft and hard X-ray regime within the scope of the 3 most promising, complementary concepts:
1) Mid-infrared laser driven upconversion
2) UV laser driven upconversion
3) Frequency and angular momentum mixing of driving lasers in extreme nonlinear optics

Some of the main research goals of the group are to produce bright coherent X-ray light from laboratory-scale systems, at photon energies of 1-10 keV and greater with unprecedented attosecond-to-zeptosecond pulse durations, and with arbitrary spectral, spatial, temporal shape, and spin and orbital angular momentum.

x-rays_routes

 

Method for phase-matched generation of coherent soft and hard X-rays using IR lasers
Tenio Popmintchev, Ming-Chang Chen, Alon Bahabad, Margaret M. Murnane, Henry C. Kapteyn, Patent: US 8,462,824. Published: JUN 2013. Provisional Patent Application: US 61171783 MAR 2008.

Method for effectively phase-matched generation of coherent VUV, EUV and X-ray light using VUV-UV-VIS lasers
Tenio Popmintchev, Dimitar Popmintchev, Margaret M. Murnane, Henry C. Kapteyn, Patent: US 61873794 SEP 2013. Published MAR 2015.

Ultraviolet surprise: Efficient soft x-ray high-harmonic generation in multiply ionized plasmas
D. Popmintchev, C. Hernandez-Garcia, F. Dollar, C. Mancuso, J. A. Perez-Hernandez, M. C. Chen, A. Hankla, X. H. Gao, B. Shim, A. L. Gaeta, M. Tarazkar, D. A. Romanov, R. J. Levis, J. A. Gaffney, M. Foord, S. B. Libby, A. Jaron-Becker, A. Becker, L. Plaja, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, T. Popmintchev, Science 350, 1225-1231 (2015).http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aac9755

Science Highlights: Short wavelengths birth shorter ones
Science News: Tenio Popmintchev fits X-ray laser on a tabletop

Bright circularly polarized soft X-ray high harmonics for X-ray magnetic circular dichroism
T. T. Fan, P. Grychtol, R. Knut, C. Hernandez-Garcia, D. D. Hickstein, D. Zusin, C. Gentry, F. J. Dollar, C. A. Mancuso, C. W. Hogle, O. Kfir, D. Legut, K. Carva, J. L. Ellis, K. M. Dorney, C. Chen, O. G. Shpyrko, E. E. Fullerton, O. Cohen, P. M. Oppeneer, D. B. Milosevic, A. Becker, A. A. Jaron-Becker, T. Popmintchev, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112, 14206-14211 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519666112

Generation of bright isolated attosecond soft X-ray pulses driven by multicycle midinfrared lasers.
M. C. Chen, C. Mancuso, C. Hernandez-Garcia, F. Dollar, B. Galloway, D. Popmintchev, P. C. Huang, B. Walker, L. Plaja, A. A. Jaron-Becker, A. Becker, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, T. Popmintchev, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111, E2361-E2367 (2014).http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1407421111

Bright Coherent Ultrahigh Harmonics in the keV X-ray Regime from Mid-Infrared Femtosecond Lasers
T. Popmintchev, M. C. Chen, D. Popmintchev, P. Arpin, S. Brown, S. Alisauskas, G. Andriukaitis, T. Balciunas, O. D. Mucke, A. Pugzlys, A. Baltuska, B. Shim, S. E. Schrauth, A. Gaeta, C. Hernandez-Garcia, L. Plaja, A. Becker, A. Jaron-Becker, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, Science 336, 1287-1291 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1218497

Optics and Photonics News Highlight: Ultrafast Kev X-Rays from Tabletop Femtosecond Lasers
Optics and Photonics News Video Highlight: Optics in 2012: Best of the Best
National Science Foundation Press Release: All the Colors of a High-Energy Rainbow, in a Tightly Focused Beam
Nature News: Tabletop X-rays light up
Chemical & Engineering News: First Tabletop X-ray Laser
Los Angeles Times: Researchers produce first tabletop X-ray laser
BBC News: X-Ray lasers from tabletop device
Science News: Tenio Popmintchev fits X-ray laser on a tabletop
Scientific American: Physicists Invent First Tabletop X-Ray Source
Nature: Optics: Leading lights

The attosecond nonlinear optics of bright coherent X-ray generation
T. Popmintchev, M. C. Chen, P. Arpin, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, Nat. Photonics 4, 822-832 (2010).http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.256

Phase matching of high harmonic generation in the soft and hard X-ray regions of the spectrum
T. Popmintchev, M. C. Chen, A. Bahabad, M. Gerrity, P. Sidorenko, O. Cohen, I. P. Christov, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106, 10516-10521 (2009).http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0903748106

Extended phase matching of high harmonics driven by mid-infrared light
T. Popmintchev, M. C. Chen, O. Cohen, M. E. Grisham, J. J. Rocca, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, Optics Letters 33, 2128-2130 (2008). http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/ol.33.002128