High intensity femtosecond enhancement cavities

To produce extreme ultraviolet radiation via high harmonic generation (HHG) in rare gases, light intensities in excess of 1014 W/cm 2 are required. Usually such high intensity are obtained by parametric amplification of laser pulses, which in turn reduces the pulse repetition rate to a few kHz. Given that the HHG process is inherently inefficient, with conversion ratios less than 10-5, only a small fraction of the pulse energy is lost in the nonlinear interactions, so it is possible to enhance the pulse intensity in a passive cavity retaining the original repetition rate. I present here a novel broadband resonator design which has the potential of supporting intracavity intensities in excess of 1015 W/cm 2 while allowing the harmonic radiation to couple out of the cavity with no loss. Extensive computer simulations are performed with a custom software package, and the required mirrors have been constructed using a standard microfabrication process.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Abram, Gilberto

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Franz X. Kärtner.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61273

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/61273