Redirection and reshaping of intense extreme-ultraviolet radiation
The goal to control short-wavelength radiation for the investigation and manipulation of ultrafast dynamics in quantum systems coevolves with the growing availability of extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) and x-ray sources from high-harmonic generation and free-electron lasers. Here, we present an XUV spatio-spectral phase modulator based on an intense XUV laser beam propagating through an optically thick resonant target, introducing dispersion profile variations around the resonance both perpendicular to and along the laser propagation direction. The resulting dipole radiation gets spectrally reshaped and becomes more divergent as compared to the original beam in the far field. As an experimental demonstration, the intense-XUV-induced double-peak off-axis structure in the far-field spectrum obtained at the Free-Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) shows indications of the underlying XUV-driven Rabi dynamics and resonant pulse propagation effects. The presented work highlights a ubiquitous phenomenon occurring when an intense laser beam passes through a resonant medium.
Authors
- Yu He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5212-0176)
- Florian Trost (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7756-286X)
- Lina Hedewig
- Philip Mosel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6672-2204)
- Carlo Kleine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6059-4507)
- Steffen Palutke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8693-2674)
- S. Düsterer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4379-1327)
- Thomas Pfeifer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5312-3747)
- Markus Braune (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2091-4585)
- Ingmar Hartl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7274-754X)
- Doriana Vinci (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8841-6534)
- Elisa Appi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3628-3543)
- Milutin Kovačev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2813-9608)
- Ulrike Frühling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8423-786X)
- Gergana D. Borisova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3558-3093)
- Marc Rebholz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0035-1412)
- Hannes Lindenblatt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1728-7979)
- Kiyoshi Ueda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8051-8966)
- Alexander Magunia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0969-9976)
- Harijyoti Mandal
- Mette B. Gaarde (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7815-5534)
- R. Moshammer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3666-4904)
- Christoph M. Heyl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2133-5224)
- Dietrich Krebs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4674-6820)
- Skirmantas Alisaukas
- Christina C. Papadopoulou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3343-6981)
- Christian Ott
- A. Saha
- Tino Lang
- Peer Biesterfeld (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3125-3051)
- Muwaffaq Ali Mourtada
Institutions
- Leibniz University Hannover (DE)
- Louisiana State University (US)
- Helmholtz Institute Jena (DE)
- GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (DE)
- Lund University (SE)
- Tohoku University (JP)
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE)
- ShanghaiTech University (CN)
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE)
- European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-05-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aef5300
- Primary Topic
- Photocathodes and Microchannel Plates
- Type
- preprint
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00