Affiliation:
1. Centro De Láseres Pulsados
2. Colorado State University
3. Universidad de Salamanca
Abstract
The generation of self-focusing beams of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation using the
focal cone high harmonic generation (FCHHG) technique is examined for
high energy lasers. The FCHHG geometry is created by passing a
focusing laser beam through a gas sheet prior to reaching focus and
thus creating a converging beam of high harmonic radiation. This leads
to a larger interaction area that increases the total area of XUV
emission while not exceeding the saturation intensity of the target
atoms or increasing the density of the atoms. Such a method allows for
scaling of HHG to any incident laser power. An experiment was
conducted demonstrating such scaling to incident 400 TW pulses,
showing both the expected spectral signature of HHG and the
converging cone of XUV radiation. It was found that this technique is
very sensitive to spatial non-uniformity in the driving laser, which
has become more prevalent in high energy laser systems.