2024/11/06 by Kyle G. Miller, Jacob R. Pierce, Miller, Kyle G. +11 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Experimental and Theoretical Physics Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Optics (physics.optics) #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2411.04258
openalex publication_date 2024/11/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Extreme ultraviolet (XUV) light sources allow for the probing of bound electron dynamics on attosecond scales, interrogation of high-energy-density matter, and access to novel regimes of strong-field quantum electrodynamics. Despite the importance of these applications, coherent XUV sources remain relatively rare, and those that do exist are limited in their peak intensity and spatio-polarization structure. Here, we demonstrate that photon acceleration of an optical vector vortex pulse in the moving density gradient of an electron beam-driven plasma wave can produce a high-intensity, tunable-wavelength XUV pulse with the same vector vortex structure as the original pulse. Quasi-3D, boosted-frame particle-in-cell simulations show the transition of optical vector vortex pulses with 800-nm wavelengths and intensities below 1018 W/cm2 to XUV vector vortex pulses with 36-nm wavelengths and intensities exceeding 1020 W/cm2 over a distance of 1.2 cm. The XUV pulses have sub-femtosecond durations and nearly flat phase fronts. The production of such high-quality, high-intensity XUV vector vortex pulses could expand the utility of XUV light as a diagnostic and driver of novel light-matter interactions.