CITIUS: An infrared-extreme ultraviolet light source for fundamental and applied ultrafast science

CITIUS generates intense, very short pulses from the infrared (IR) to the extreme ultraviolet (XUV). XUV pulses (14-80 eV) are produced using high-harmonic generation in gas. The systems includes an XUV monochromator that can either preserve the time structure of radiation or provide high wavelength resolution. The set-up allows combining IR, visible and ultraviolet laser pulses with XUV radiation in pump-probe experiments. C. Grazioli et al., dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4864298


We present the main features of CITIUS, a new light source for ultrafast science, generating tunable, intense, femtosecond pulses in the spectral range from infrared to extreme ultraviolet (XUV). The XUV pulses (about 105-108 photons per pulse in the range 14-80 eV) are produced by laser-induced high-order harmonic generation in gas. This radiation is monochromatized by a time-preserving monochromator, also allowing one to work with high-resolution bandwidth selection. The tunable IR-UV pulses (1012-1015 photons/pulse in the range 0.4-5.6 eV) are generated by an optical parametric amplifier, which is driven by a fraction of the same laser pulse that generates high order harmonics.

The IR-UV and XUV pulses follow different optical paths and are eventually recombined on the sample for pump-probe experiments. We also present the results of two pump-probe experiments: with the first one, we fully characterized the temporal duration of harmonic pulses in the time-preserving configuration; with the second one, we demonstrated the possibility of using CITIUS for selective investigation of the ultrafast dynamics of different elements in a magnetic compound. 

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CITIUS: An infrared-extreme ultraviolet light source for fundamental and applied ultrafast science, C. Grazioli et al., dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4864298
Last Updated on Friday, 23 June 2017 14:10