Focusing of high order harmonics from solid density plasmas

Abstract

The generation of coherent radiation in the extreme ultraviolet regime by the interaction of a relativistically intense laser pulse with an over-dense plasma makes a new class of experiments accessible. The availability of isolated attosecond pulses orders of magnitude higher in intensity than those produced in gaseous media would allow for the first time XUV-pump/XUV-probe type experiments with real time resolution on the attosecond timescale. The utilization of these pulses, however, demands complete control over generation and transport parameters. We present a dedicated beamline for generation, transport, application and full characterization of spatial as well as temporal properties of attosecond pulses off solid density targets. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd.