Bessel spatial profile of a soft x-ray laser beam

F. Tissandier (1) , Stéphane Sebban (1) , M. Ribiere (1) , Julien Gautier (1) , Philippe Zeitoun (1) , Guillaume Lambert (1) , Jean-Philippe Goddet (1) , Frédéric Burgy (1) , C. Valentin (1) , Antoine Rousse (1) , J. Nejdl (2) , Tomas Mocek (2) , G. Maynard (3)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
2 PALS - Institute of Physics
3 LPGP - Laboratoire de physique des gaz et des plasmas

We report far-field profile measurements of an optical-field-ionized high-order harmonic-seeded soft x-ray laser. We show that the beam transverse profile can be controlled between a regular Gaussian shape and a Bessel profile exhibiting several rings via the infrared laser pump intensity. These experimental data are supported by a complete numerical modeling including a two-dimensional plasma amplifier simulation and a two-level soft x-ray amplification using a Maxwell–Bloch treatment. This model takes into account the experimental high-order harmonic wavefront and intensity before it is numerically amplified.

Keywords: laser beams; numerical analysis; optical pumping; X-ray lasers

Domains: Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Optics [physics.optics]

F. Tissandier, Stéphane Sebban, M. Ribiere, Julien Gautier, Philippe Zeitoun, et al.. Bessel spatial profile of a soft x-ray laser beam. Applied Physics Letters, 2010, 97 (23), pp.231106. ⟨10.1063/1.3515841⟩. ⟨hal-00572608⟩