LOA Seminar: Marta Fajardo (Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon)

Laser-based secondary sources of radiation in the soft X-ray and EUV range have the potential for imaging at the smallest spatial and temporal scales, given their wavelength range and ultrashort duration (fs or under). Recently novel degrees of freedom of light beam manipulation have been extended into the high intensity regime, to enhance their emissivity or expand their capability. We have used these pulse shaping techniques to generate coherent EUV sources, where High Harmonics from laser-gas interaction are seen to reproduce IR wavefront shaping and can generate light tubes with Orbital Angular Momentum using EUV optics. At close to relativistic intensities, we have performed simulations that show that structured laser pulses can also improve the performance of incoherent plasma-based x-ray sources. The outcomes of these new developments in plasma-based x-ray sources, as well as optimization strategies and applications, will be presented.