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Extreme-Ultraviolet Vortices from a Free-Electron Laser

Primož Rebernik Ribič1,*, Benedikt Rösner2, David Gauthier1, Enrico Allaria1, Florian Döring2, Laura Foglia1, Luca Giannessi1,4, Nicola Mahne1, Michele Manfredda1 et al.

Claudio Masciovecchio1, Riccardo Mincigrucci1, Najmeh Mirian1, Emiliano Principi1, Eléonore Roussel1, Alberto Simoncig1, Simone Spampinati1, Christian David2, and Giovanni De Ninno1,3

  • 1Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste, Strada Statale 14-km 163,5, 34149 Basovizza, Trieste, Italy
  • 2Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen-PSI, Switzerland
  • 3Laboratory of Quantum Optics, University of Nova Gorica, 5001 Nova Gorica, Slovenia
  • 4ENEA, C.R. Frascati, Via E. Fermi 45, 00044 Frascati (Rome), Italy

  • *primoz.rebernik@elettra.eu
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Phys. Rev. X 7, 031036 – Published 28 August, 2017Erratum Phys. Rev. X 8, 039901 (2018)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.7.031036

Abstract

Extreme-ultraviolet vortices may be exploited to steer the magnetic properties of nanoparticles, increase the resolution in microscopy, and gain insight into local symmetry and chirality of a material; they might even be used to increase the bandwidth in long-distance space communications. However, in contrast to the generation of vortex beams in the infrared and visible spectral regions, production of intense, extreme-ultraviolet and x-ray optical vortices still remains a challenge. Here, we present an in-situ and an ex-situ technique for generating intense, femtosecond, coherent optical vortices at a free-electron laser in the extreme ultraviolet. The first method takes advantage of nonlinear harmonic generation in a helical undulator, producing vortex beams at the second harmonic without the need for additional optical elements, while the latter one relies on the use of a spiral zone plate to generate a focused, micron-size optical vortex with a peak intensity approaching 1014  W/cm2, paving the way to nonlinear optical experiments with vortex beams at short wavelengths.

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Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Corrections

19 July, 2018

Erratum

Publisher’s Note: Extreme-Ultraviolet Vortices from a Free-Electron Laser [Phys. Rev. X 7, 031036 (2017)]

Primož Rebernik Ribič, Benedikt Rösner, David Gauthier, Enrico Allaria, Florian Döring, Laura Foglia, Luca Giannessi, Nicola Mahne, Michele Manfredda, Claudio Masciovecchio, Riccardo Mincigrucci, Najmeh Mirian, Emiliano Principi, Eléonore Roussel, Alberto Simoncig, Simone Spampinati, Christian David, and Giovanni De Ninno
Phys. Rev. X 8, 039901 (2018)

Viewpoint

Free-Electron Laser Does the Twist

Published 28 August, 2017

Researchers have used a free-electron laser to produce vortex radiation at extreme-ultraviolet wavelengths.

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Popular Summary

Light typically travels as a wave whose wave fronts are flat, similar to ocean waves gently coming ashore. But it is possible to make light whose wave fronts twist as they move forward. Such light beams are said to carry “orbital angular momentum.” A beam of light carrying these helically shaped wave fronts—known as optical vortices—has a donutlike intensity. In the visible spectrum, optical vortices have been used to trap and rotate small objects, increase the resolution in optical microscopes, and enhance data transmission in optical communications. At short wavelengths (ultraviolet and x rays), optical vortices are predicted to trigger new phenomena, such as loops of electric current in spherical molecules or violations of the standard rules that determine how an atom is ionized by light. Here, we demonstrate two methods for generating intense optical vortices at wavelengths approaching the x-ray spectral region using a free-electron laser (FEL).

In a FEL, powerful laserlike pulses are generated by relativistic electrons wiggling inside an undulator—a periodic magnet structure. In the first setup, we exploit the fact that harmonics emitted by electrons on a spiral trajectory through a helical undulator carry orbital angular momentum to produce intense optical vortices at the second harmonic of the FEL resonant frequency. The second method is based on the use of a spiral zone plate, which simultaneously focuses the FEL beam and imprints a helical structure onto its phase profile, generating a high-intensity focused optical vortex.

We expect that these methods will allow researchers to perform recently proposed experiments involving vortex beams in different areas of fundamental and applied physics such as characterization of materials and even long-distance space communication.

Article Text

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. X 7, 031036– Published 28 August, 2017
  • Received 20 June 2017
  • Corrected 19 July 2018
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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