Brilliant, ultra-short vuv/xuv/x-ray photon beams and next generation diagnostics for laser-generated particle and photon beams

In order to produce brilliant photon beams with only few-atosecond duration, high harmonics will be generated by exposing surfaces to a relativistic few-cycle laser pulse from LWS-50 and later from PFS (Fig. A.2.2.2). For efficient generation of higher-order harmonics a laser beam is focused at oblique incidence onto a planar solid target. It instantly forms an overdense plasma, which reflects the laser pulse. Driven by the laser field, the target electron density starts to execute a non-linear excursion at the vacuum-plasma interface. This anharmonic oscillation, in turn, radiates an electromagnetic wave comprising higher-order harmonics of the incident driving laser field. The long-term goal here is to generate single attosecond xuv/sxr pulses with peak intensities ultimately exceeding the terawatt level and pulse durations approaching the few-attosecond regime for exciting applications in ultrafast and high-field science.

Achieving these goals will critically rely on concomitant advances in “numerical experiments”. To this end, we shall pursue — in parallel to the experimental work outlined above — comprehensive numerical investigations by drawing on MPQ’s world-class expertise in this area and the supercomputing facilities available at the research campus at Garching. Our comprehensive preliminary studies resulted in the following predictions with regard to the achievable parameters of the pursued sources (HH = High Harmonics), revealing their complementarity in terms of pulse duration, brilliance, and wavelength: