High-Average Power, Soft X-Ray Generation Driver at 2.1 μm

The increasing brilliance of table-top, coherent soft X-ray sources make them compelling alternatives to particle-accelerator-based, large-scale facility light sources such as synchrotrons and free-electron lasers. While the conversion efficiency of High-order Harmonic Generation (HHG) is low, the average power of the associated driving lasers is constantly increasing and multi-kW, industrial-grade solid-state lasers at 1030 nm are starting to enter the market. By combining such lasers with nonlinear conversion devices, such as optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers (OPCPAs), one can build powerful, infrared driver sources with favorable properties for HHG in the soft X-ray spectral range [1]: long wavelength, few-cycle pulse duration, carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stability, high peak intensity, and high average power.