arXiv subjects

J. Gautier

Publications and source records attributed to J. Gautier.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Table-top Nonlinear Extreme Ultraviolet Spectroscopy

The lack of available table-top extreme ultraviolet (XUV) sources with high enough fluxes and coherence properties have limited the availability of nonlinear XUV and x-ray spectroscopies to free electron lasers (FEL). Here, we demonstrate second harmonic generation (SHG) on a table-top XUV source for the first time by observing SHG at the Ti M2,3-edge with a high harmonic seeded soft x-ray laser (HHG-SXRL) [1,2]. Further, this experiment represents the first SHG experiment in the XUV. First-principles electronic structure calculations are used to confirm the surface specificity and resonant enhancement of the SHG signal. The realization of XUV-SHG on a table-top source with femtosecond temporal resolution opens up tremendous opportunities for the study of element-specific dynamics in multi-component systems where surface, interfacial, and bulk-phase asymmetries play a driving role in smaller-scale labs as opposed to FELs.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Nonlinear Ionization Dynamics of Hot Dense Plasma Observed in a Laser-Plasma Amplifier

From fusion dynamics in stars, to terrestrial lightning events, to new prospects of energy production or novel light sources, hot dense plasmas are of importance for an array of physical phenomena. Due to a plethora of correlations in highly excited matter, direct probing of isolated dynamics remains challenging. Here, the 32.8-nm emission of a high-harmonic seeded laser-plasma amplifier (LPA), using eight-fold ionized Krypton as gain medium, is ptychographically imaged in longitudinal direction in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV). In excellent agreement with ab initio spatio-temporal Maxwell-Bloch simulations, an overionization of krypton due to nonlinear laser-plasma interactions is observed. This constitutes the first experimental observation of the laser ion abundance reshaping a laser plasma amplifier. The findings have direct implications for upscaling plasma-based XUV and X-ray sources and allow modeling light-plasma interactions in extreme conditions, similar to those of the early times of the universe, with direct experimental verification.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Swept-source optical coherence tomography by off-axis Fresnel transform digital holography with an output throughput of 10 Giga voxels per second in real-time

We demonstrate swept-source optical coherence tomography in real-time by high throughput digital Fresnel hologram rendering from optically-acquired interferograms with a high-speed camera. The interferogram stream is spatially rescaled with respect to wavelength to compensate for field-of-view dilation inherent to discrete Fresnel transformation. Holograms are calculated from an input stream of 16-bit, 1024-by-1024-pixel interferograms recorded at up to 512 frames per second with a digital camera. All calculations are performed by a NVIDIA TITAN Xp graphics card on single-precision floating-point complex-valued arrays (32-bit per quadrature). It allows sustained computation of 1024-by-1024-by-256-voxel volumes at 10 billion voxel/s, from which three perpendicular cuts are displayed in real-time at user-selected locations, up to 38 frames per second.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

3D printing of gas jet nozzles for laser-plasma accelerators

Recent results on laser wakefield acceleration in tailored plasma channels have underlined the importance of controlling the density profile of the gas target. In particular it was reported that appropriate density tailoring can result in improved injection, acceleration and collimation of laser-accelerated electron beams. To achieve such profiles innovative target designs are required. For this purpose we have reviewed the usage of additive layer manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing, in order to produce gas jet nozzles. Notably we have compared the performance of two industry standard techniques, namely selective laser sintering (SLS) and stereolithography (SLA). Furthermore we have used the common fused deposition modeling (FDM) to reproduce basic gas jet designs and used SLA and SLS for more sophisticated nozzle designs. The nozzles are characterized interferometrically and used for electron acceleration experiments with the Salle Jaune terawatt laser at Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2015

An all-optical Compton source for single-exposure X-ray imaging

All-optical Compton sources are innovative, compact devices to produce high energy femtosecond X-rays. Here we present results on a single-pulse scheme that uses a plasma mirror to reflect the drive beam of a laser plasma accelerator and to make it collide with the highly-relativistic electrons in its wake. The accelerator is operated in the self-injection regime, producing quasi-monoenergetic electron beams of around 150 MeV peak energy. Scattering with the intense femtosecond laser pulse leads to the emission of a collimated high energy photon beam. Using continuum-attenuation filters we measure significant signal content beyond 100 keV and with simulations we estimate a peak photon energy of around 500 keV. The source divergence is about 13 mrad and the pointing stability is 7 mrad. We demonstrate that the photon yield from the source is sufficiently high to illuminate a centimeter-size sample placed 90 centimeters behind the source, thus obtaining radiographs in a single shot.

physics.plasm-ph↗