Attosecond & High-Harmonic Generation
Drive lasers, gas-jet / waveguide HHG sources, XUV beamlines, and attosecond pump-probe diagnostics for strong-field physics, electron dynamics, and ARPES.
Step 1 — Define your goal
What are you trying to achieve?
Pick the experiment / project closest to yours. We'll route you to the right system architecture and BOM.
Step 2 — Confirm the problem
Common project challenges
If any of these sound familiar, you're in the right place. WaveQuanta engineers have seen — and solved — every one of them.
CEP stability over a multi-day measurement
Slow drift kills RABBITT and streaking. Active CEP feedback + thermal control are non-negotiable.
Achieving the right drive pulse: short, intense, CEP-stable
Sub-30 fs at >1 mJ + CEP-locked is the typical entry point. Hollow-fiber or MPC compression after a CPA chain.
HHG flux vs cutoff trade-off
Higher driving intensity = more cutoff but worse phase matching. Long gas cells, waveguides, and pressure profiles all matter.
XUV spectrometer & detector choice
Soft X-ray CCDs (back-illuminated, vacuum-compatible) vs MCP + phosphor + camera. Photon counting vs analog readout.
Vacuum system + differential pumping
HHG beamline pressure goes from 100 mbar (gas) → 10⁻⁹ mbar (XUV optics). Differential pumping stages required.
Dispersion management of the drive laser
Each glass / mirror in the path adds GDD. Below 30 fs, you must compensate every element.
Precise pump-probe delay (atto-stable)
Sub-100-as delay stability requires interferometric stabilization + low-vibration mounts.
Reference / ionization signal calibration
Cross-correlating XUV with IR pump for time-zero. Often built around a TOF spectrometer.
Step 3 — Understand the system
Typical system architecture
Most projects in this area follow a similar signal flow. Your specific architecture depends on resolution, throughput, and form-factor targets.
fs CPA chain delivering CEP-stabilized, mJ-level pulses at 1 kHz typical.
Spectral broadening + chirped-mirror compression to sub-10 fs.
Long focal length focusing into gas cell or waveguide, polarization control.
Differential pumping stages from gas target to XUV optics.
f-2f interferometer + CEP feedback; pump-probe delay line at attosecond stability.
Step 4 — Pick the modules
Recommended system modules
These are the building blocks. Each module is a category of products — pick the right brand and grade for your project stage below.
CEP-Locked Drive Laser
fs CPA chain delivering CEP-stabilized, mJ-level pulses at 1 kHz typical.
- Yb / Ti:sapphire drive · 800 / 1030 nm
- CEP-lock loop, sub-100 mrad RMS
- >1 mJ at 1–3 kHz
Hollow-Fiber Post-Compression
Spectral broadening + chirped-mirror compression to sub-10 fs.
- Hollow-core fiber · noble gas
- Chirped-mirror compressor
- Wizzler / d-scan diagnostics
HHG Drive Optics & Focus
Long focal length focusing into gas cell or waveguide, polarization control.
- Long-focal silver / dielectric mirrors
- λ/2 + thin BBO if needed
- Variable iris for intensity control
Vacuum Beamline & Differential Pumping
Differential pumping stages from gas target to XUV optics.
- Vacuum chamber + turbomolecular pumps
- Differential pumping aperture
- Vibration-isolated optical mounts
CEP Diagnostics & Timing
f-2f interferometer + CEP feedback; pump-probe delay line at attosecond stability.
- f-2f CEP measurement
- Delay line · sub-100 as stability
- Piezo + interferometric feedback
XUV Spectrometer & Detection
Grating spectrometer with soft X-ray CCD or MCP detector.
- Flat-field XUV grating
- Back-illuminated soft X-ray CCD
- PI-MTE3 or PIXIS-XO class
Pulse Characterization (FROG-CRAB)
RABBITT / streaking station for sub-fs / attosecond pulse retrieval.
- TOF photoelectron spectrometer
- FROG-CRAB retrieval software
- Reference IR + XUV combined
Wavelength / Frequency Conversion
SHG / THG of the drive for multi-color HHG and pump-probe schemes.
- BBO SHG to 400 / 515 nm
- Noble-gas filamentation if needed
- Diagnostics + temporal overlap
Step 5 — Match your project stage
Choose your project stage
Same modules, three configurations sized for where your project is today. Move up the tiers as you progress from research to validation to OEM.
Research Starter
First HHG / atto group · proof-of-principle
Entry-level HHG beamline for university labs. Gas-jet HHG, simple grating spectrometer, XUV CCD. No CEP-lock yet — for cutoff studies and phase-matching work.
- Yb / Ti:sapph drive · 1 kHz · ~1 mJ
- Gas-jet HHG cell
- Flat-field grating + soft X-ray CCD
- Pulse diagnostic (FROG / Wizzler)
- Low-dispersion drive optics
- Vacuum chamber + pumps
BOM tier: $300k – $700k
Engineering Validation
CEP-stable atto pump-probe lab
Full attosecond facility: CEP-locked drive, post-compression, RABBITT/streaking station, time-resolved XUV detection. The system you'd publish from.
- CEP-locked CPA · sub-30 fs · >1 mJ
- Hollow-fiber + chirped-mirror comp.
- f-2f CEP measurement
- FROG-CRAB / streaking TOF
- XUV spectrometer + back-illum. CCD
- Atto-stable delay line
- Wavefront / beam diagnostics
BOM tier: $1.2M – $3M
OEM Production
User-facility beamline / industrial atto source
Turn-key attosecond beamline for a national user facility or industrial XUV source customer. Sealed industrial drive + service contract + remote control.
- Sealed industrial fs CPA + CEP-lock
- Fully integrated HHG beamline
- User-facility control software
- Long-term supply + service
- Documented uptime KPIs
- Vacuum & safety certified
BOM tier: $3M+ · contract
Step 6 — Run the numbers
Recommended calculators
Sanity-check your design before talking to an engineer.
Step 7 — Configure the system
Configure your setup with our engineering tools
Two ways to go from "this is what I want to do" to "this is the BOM I need".
Open Attosecond Beamline Virtual Lab
Lay out the drive laser, hollow-fiber, gas cell, XUV grating, and detector on a 3D bench. Visualize differential pumping stages and export a vacuum + optics BOM.
Launch Virtual LabAsk AI to scope my HHG beamline
Describe your photon energy target, drive laser, and end-station. AI Concierge proposes a beamline architecture, vacuum stages, and detector chain in 30 seconds.
Open AI ConciergeStep 8 — Anchor SKUs
Featured products for this application
Common picks for this application area. Your final BOM will pull from a wider catalog and be sized to your project tier.
WaveQuanta
HELIOS Femtosecond Drive Laser
Yi-Laser
HYPERION-G MPC Pulse Compressor
WaveQuanta
AURORA-H Hybrid OPA — High Energy
WaveQuanta
Wizzler 2000 Pulse Diagnostics
Princeton Instruments
PIXIS-XO Soft X-ray CCD Camera
Princeton Instruments
PI-MTE3 Thermoelectric X-ray CCD
LBTek
Manual Adjustable Delay Line LBODL
LBTek
Equilateral Dispersive Prisms
Step 9 — Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to the questions our application engineers hear most often.
How short / intense does the drive laser need to be for HHG?
Practical HHG with reasonable cutoff (50–100 eV) requires ≤30 fs at > 10¹⁴ W/cm² focal intensity. For isolated attosecond pulses you typically need sub-10 fs CEP-stabilized. Most groups reach this via hollow-fiber post-compression of a CPA system.
Gas-jet vs hollow-waveguide HHG?
Gas jet is simpler and widely used for proof-of-principle and cutoff studies. Hollow waveguides achieve quasi-phase-matching over longer interaction lengths, giving higher flux and cutoff but require careful pressure / mode tuning.
CEP-stable or not?
For RABBITT / harmonic combs / time-resolved ARPES, CEP-stability is optional — you only need few-cycle and good timing. For isolated attosecond pulses + streaking, CEP-locked drive is mandatory.
Which XUV detector should I pick?
Back-illuminated soft X-ray CCDs (Princeton PIXIS-XO / PI-MTE3 / SOPHIA-XO) give photon counting in the 50–1500 eV range. Lower energies use grating + MCP + phosphor + camera. Pick photon-counting CCD if you need single-shot quantitative spectra.
How much vacuum do I really need?
Gas target: 10–100 mbar. After differential pumping (single aperture): 10⁻⁵ mbar. XUV optics + detector: 10⁻⁷ to 10⁻⁹ mbar (to keep MgF₂ / Al filters and CCD clean). Plan for 2–3 differential pumping stages.
Can I add HHG to my existing fs lab?
If you have ≥1 mJ at ≤30 fs you can add a basic gas-jet HHG arm + XUV grating + CCD as a vacuum extension. Budget around $400–700k for the upgrade. Going to attosecond pump-probe roughly doubles the budget for hollow-fiber + CEP-lock + streaking station.
Sub-100 attosecond timing — is it real?
Yes, with attosecond-stabilized delay lines (piezo + interferometric feedback over a CW reference beam) and vibration-isolated mounts. Long acquisition (hours to days) is the practical limit due to slow drift, not the delay line.
Long-term supply for a national user facility?
Yi-Laser CPA + WaveQuanta optics + Princeton soft X-ray cameras support 5–10 year supply contracts with batch reproducibility. We've delivered to multiple national labs and synchrotrons; we provide documented uptime + service-level agreements at OEM tier.
Step 10 — Engineering Review
Application Engineering Review
Tell us your application, current setup, and project context. A WaveQuanta application engineer will return initial recommendations within 1 business day.
- 1 Application
- 2 Current setup
- 3 Project & purchase