High repetition rate and high photon energy attosecond pulse sources for time-resolved spectroscopy and imaging

This project shifts the boundaries of ultrafast laser technology in order to realize novel, high power and high repetition rate attosecond pulse sources in the extreme ultraviolet and soft-X-ray spectral ranges. Attosecond pulses are laser-driven, coherent light sources.

Their characteristics can be controlled by that of the driving laser and breakthroughs in attosecond science follow from advances in laser technology.The attosecond sources developed in this project have two hundred times higher repetition rate (200 kHz) compared to the current standard and are tailored towards applications with high demands on signal-to-noise ratio and that require rapid built-up of statistics.

We are the first to have demonstrated the capability to perform high repetition rate attosecond pump-probe spectroscopy and we can build on established experimental end stations for coincidence photoelectron spectroscopy and time-resolved nanoscale photoelectron microscopy.The proposed project is divided into two strongly coupled sub-projects: One focuses at advanced attosecond pulse train control for novel pump-probe schemes and coherent control of photoelectron wave packets.

In the other sub-project, we will develop a very powerful mid-infrared driving laser to realize an attosecond source with much higher photon energy in the soft-X-ray spectral range which will open up for studying the rich physics of the inner atomic shells with attosecond time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopic methods.