The dynamic of electron densities in matter upon the interaction with an intense, few-cycle electric field of light causes variety of nonlinear phenomena. Capturing the spatiotemporal dynamics of electrons calls for isolated attosecond pulses in the X-ray regime, with sufficient flux to allow for: (i) attosecond pump–attosecond probe spectroscopy; or (ii) four-dimensional imaging. Light field synthesizers generate arbitrary sub-cycle, non-sinusoidal waveforms. They have a great potential to overcome the limitations of current laser sources and to extend attosecond pulses towards the X-ray regime. In this paper, we show theoretically how the achievable high-energy, high-power waveforms from current light field synthesizers can be optimized to enhance the harmonic yield at high photon energies and can serve as a promising source for scaling the photon energies of attosecond pulses. We demonstrate that the simulated optimized, non-sinusoidal waveform in this work can increase the photon flux of keV, attosecond pulses by five orders of magnitude compared to the achievable flux from longer wavelength sources and at similar photon energies.
Prospects of third-generation femtosecond laser technology in biological spectromicroscopy
The next generation of biological imaging modalities will be a movement towards super-resolution, label-free approaches to realize subcellular images in a nonperturbative, non-invasive manner and towards new detection metrologies to reach a higher sensitivity and dynamic range. In this paper, we discuss how the third generation femtosecond laser technology in combination with the already existing concepts in time-resolved spectroscopy could fulfill the requirements of these exciting prospects. The expected enhanced specificity and sensitivity of the envisioned super-resolution microscope could lead us to a better understanding of the inter- and intra-cellular molecular transport and DNA-protein interaction.
Prospects of third-generation femtosecond laser technology in biological spectromicroscopy
Hanieh Fattahi,
Zohreh Fattahi,
Asghar Ghorbani
Journal of Optics
20
(5)
054005
(2018)
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Forschungsgruppe Hanieh Fattahi
Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts Staudtstr. 2 91058 Erlangen