AURORA

AURORA

XUV Phase Retarder

AURORA

Our XUV Phase Retarder acts as a quarter waveplate to turn linearly polarized XUV light into circularly polarized light without introducing noticeable dispersion. The phase retarder achieves close-to-circular polarization of Pc =0.75 and obtains > 25% transmission around 66 eV photon energy, where the Ni M2 /M3 edge locates[1]. A broad spectral range from 40 to 85 eV is supported to cover the M2 / M3 edge of 3 transition metals - Fe, Co and Ni. The retarder uses a transmission optimized, four mirror grazing incidence reflection geometry that induces a quarter wave phase offset between the s- and p-polarization components of a linearly polarized input XUV beam. At the Ni M2 /M3 transition up to 3% dichroism contrast is observed (i.e. > 85% of the theoretical value)[1]. A clear aperture of 3 mm will allow the low divergent XUV to pass through without clipping. Our XUV Phase Retarder is ideally geared to be combined with ultrafast high-harmonic XUV sources adding spin-sensitivity to conventional laser based pump-probe experiments via attosecond magnetic circular dichroism detection.

Key Product Features

  • Create circularly polarized XUV light without adding dispersion (ideal for attosecond applications)
  • Up to ≈ 40% max transmission
  • Broad spectral range covering 40 – 85 eV
  • Compact design, with minimum change in the delay line
  • Entrance and exit iris diaphragms for alignment
  • Easy to implement in existing setups

References

[1] Light-wave dynamic control of magnetism
F. Siegrist, J. Gessner, M. Ossiander, C. Denker, Y. Chang, M. Schröder, A. Guggenmos, Y. Cui, J. Walowski, U. Martens, J. K. Dewhurst, U. Kleineberg, M. Münzenberg, S. Sharma, M. Schultze
Nature 571, 240 (2019)