Controlled free-induction decay in the extreme ultraviolet

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to control and manipulate coherent extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation using an infrared control pulse, enabling tailored XUV light for advanced applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel technique for controlling XUV free induction decay with an IR pulse, acting as a modulator for XUV wavelengths.

Findings

IR pulse manipulates spatial phase of XUV emission

Enables directional control of XUV light

Allows spectral phase shaping of XUV pulses

Abstract

Coherent sources of attosecond extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation present many challenges if their full potential is to be realized. While many applications benefit from the broadband nature of these sources, it is also desirable to produce narrow band XUV pulses, or to study autoionizing resonances in a manner that is free of the broad ionization background that accompanies above-threshold XUV excitation. Here we demonstrate a method for controlling the coherent XUV free induction decay that results from using attosecond pulses to excite a gas, yielding a fully functional modulator for XUV wavelengths. We use an infrared (IR) control pulse to manipulate both the spatial and spectral phase of the XUV emission, sending the light in a direction of our choosing at a time of our choosing. This allows us to tailor the light using opto-optical modulation, similar to devices available in the IR and visible wavelength regions.