Saturated Amplification of a Collisionally Pumped Optical-Field-Ionization Soft X-Ray Laser at 41.8 nm

Stéphane Sebban (1) , Romain Haroutunian (1) , Philippe Balcou (1) , G. Grillon (1) , Antoine Rousse (1) , Sophie Kazamias (1) , T. Marin (1) , Jean-Philippe Rousseau (1) , L. Notebaert (1) , M. Pittman (1) , Jean-Paul Chambaret (1) , André Antonetti (1) , D. Hulin (1) , David Ros (2) , Annie Klisnick (2) , Antoine Carillon (2) , P. Jaeglé (2) , Gérard Jamelot (2) , J.-F. Wyart (3)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
2 Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Atomique et Ionique
3 LAC - Laboratoire Aimé Cotton

We report the first saturated amplification of an optical-field-ionization soft x-ray laser. The amplifying medium is generated by focusing a circularly polarized 330-mJ, 35-fs, 10-Hz Ti:sapphire laser system in a few-mm cell filled with xenon. A gain of 67 cm^-1 on the 4d^95p-4d^95d transition at 41.8 nm in Pd-like xenon and a gain-length product of 15 have been inferred at saturation. This source delivers about 5×10^9 photons per pulse. The influence of the pumping energy and the laser polarization on the lasing output are also presented.

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Stéphane Sebban, Romain Haroutunian, Philippe Balcou, G. Grillon, Antoine Rousse, et al.. Saturated Amplification of a Collisionally Pumped Optical-Field-Ionization Soft X-Ray Laser at 41.8 nm. Physical Review Letters, 2001, 86 (14), pp.3004-3007. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.3004⟩. ⟨hal-00523500⟩