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Shinichi Namba

Publications and source records attributed to Shinichi Namba.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

40% boost in extreme ultraviolet conversion efficiency via simultaneous dual-beam 2-{\mu}m laser irradiation

Scaling extreme ultraviolet (EUV) source power for next-generation lithography demands higher conversion efficiency (CE) at reduced per-pulse energies. We demonstrated a 40% CE enhancement by simultaneous dual-beam irradiation of a planar Sn target with a 2090-nm, 20-ns Ho:YAG laser. Single-beam irradiation at 40 mJ yielded an EUV CE of 2.6%; splitting the same total energy equally into two beams of 20 mJ each - at identical peak intensity - raised the EUV CE to 3.6%, which was the highest reported for 2-{\mu}m-driven laser-produced plasma sources. The EUV source size (60-70 {\mu}m) and energetic-ion spectra were nearly identical across both configurations, confirming comparable plasma conditions. Because the scheme requires only passive beam splitting and scales readily to three or more beams, it offers a practical route toward multi-kW-class, energy-efficient EUV sources for high-NA and hyper-NA lithography.

physics.optics

Burst Intensification by Singularity Emitting Radiation in Laser Plasma

Burst Intensification by Singularity Emitting Radiation (BISER) appears as a bright temporally and spatially coherent Extreme Ultraviolet (XUV) and x-ray source driven by compact multi-terawatt femtosecond lasers in gas targets. There BISER originates from relativistic plasma singularities, so that the emission source size has a nanometer scale. The BISER x-ray yield quadratically depends on the driving laser power. BISER spectra have hundreds of electronvolt (eV) bandwidth embracing the 'water window' region (284 - 543 eV). Simulations predict that BISER pulses have durations close to the transform limit, which promises pulses shorter than the atomic unit of time (24 attoseconds). Based on the BISER brightness at ~20 terawatt laser power and the quadratic scaling, the brightness of BISER driven by petawatt-class lasers is predicted to exceed XUV free electron lasers. The BISER concept creates a new framework for a wide range of media emitting travelling waves capable of constructive interference, including gravitational waves. Here we review the BISER experimental discovery, its explanation based on the relativistic laser plasma simulations and catastrophe theory, experimental validation of the theoretical BISER model, proposal for imaging fast moving singularities, driving laser requirements, and future prospects emphasizing the driving laser wavelength scalability and possibility of terawatt attosecond coherent x-ray pulse generation.

physics.plasm-ph

Avalanche effect and gain saturation in high harmonic generation

Optical amplifiers in all ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum exhibit two essential characteristics: i) the input signal during the propagation in the medium is multiplied by the avalanche effect of the stimulated emission to produce exponential growth and ii) the amplification saturates at increasing input signal. We demonstrate that the strong-field theory in the frame of high harmonic generation fully supports the appearance of both the avalanche and saturation effects in the amplification of extreme ultraviolet attosecond pulse trains. We confirm that the amplification takes place only if the seed pulses are perfectly synchronized with the driving strong field in the amplifier. We performed an experimental study and subsequent model calculation on He gas driven by intense 30-fs-long laser pulses, which was seeded with an attosecond pulse train at 110 eV generated in a separated Ne gas jet. The comparison of the performed calculations with the measurements clearly demonstrates that the pumped He gas medium acted as an amplifier of the extreme ultraviolet pulse train.

physics.optics