Phase-locking of time-delayed attosecond XUV pulse pairs

Abstract

We present a setup for the generation of phase-locked attosecond extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulse pairs. The attosecond pulse pairs are generated by high harmonic generation (HHG) driven by two phase-locked near-infrared (NIR) pulses that are produced using an actively stabilized Mach-Zehnder interferometer compatible with near-single cycle pulses. The attosecond XUV pulses can be delayed over a range of 400 fs with a sub-10-as delay jitter. We validate the precision and the accuracy of the setup by XUV optical interferometry and by retrieving the energies of Rydberg states of helium in an XUV pump–NIR probe photoelectron spectroscopy experiment.