XUV Phase Retarder — ufi-aurora
UltraFast Innovations

AURORA — XUV Phase Retarder / Quarter Waveplate (10-85 eV)

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AURORA is an XUV phase retarder that converts linearly-polarized extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) radiation into circularly or elliptically polarized light. It provides a compact and efficient solution for polarization control across a wide range of XUV applications.

The retarder uses a transmission-optimized, four-mirror grazing-incidence reflection geometry that induces a quarter-wave phase offset between s- and p-polarization components of a linearly-polarized input XUV beam. AURORA exhibits negligible dispersion and supports broad spectral operation. It is remotely controllable and vacuum-compatible.

The outstanding dispersion properties and minimal change to the delay line make AURORA perfectly suited for ultrafast and attosecond XUV sources, including high-harmonic generation (HHG) beamlines. The supported energy ranges include important absorption edges of transition metals (Fe, Co, Ni), enabling magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) experiments in materials science.

Key Product Features

  • XUV quarter waveplate: generates circularly-polarized XUV without added dispersion — ideal for attosecond experiments
  • Up to ~40% max transmission (40-85 eV version) / ~30% (10-40 eV version)
  • Two spectral-range versions: Low-energy 10-40 eV and High-energy 40-85 eV
  • Compact design with minimum change in the delay line
  • Entrance and exit iris diaphragms for alignment
  • Vacuum-compatible, remotely controllable
  • Easy to implement in existing setups

Application Notes — Magnetic Circular Dichroism

AURORA is the perfect tool for attosecond magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) experiments. As demonstrated in Siegrist et al. Nature 571 (2019), AURORA was used to provide high ellipticity and transmission at the Nickel M-edge (~66-68 eV), enabling element-specific tracking of coherent ultrafast spin dynamics in multilayer systems. The working range also covers M-edges of Fe (52.7 / 58.9 eV) and Co (59.9 eV) for further studies.

References

  1. Siegrist F., Gessner J.A., Ossiander M. et al. Light-wave dynamic control of magnetism. Nature 571, 240-244 (2019)

Developed at the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics. UFI is a spin-off from LMU Munich and the Max Planck Society.

ModelsAURORA — Low-EnergyAURORA — High-Energy
Spectral range10–40 eV40–85 eV
Average transmission>25%>25%
Max ellipticity Pc1.0 @ 21 eV0.85 @ 53 eV (Fe); 0.75 @ 66 eV (Ni)
Extra beam path3 mm3 mm
Clear aperture3 mm3 mm
Footprint51 (W) × 118 (L) mm51 (W) × 118 (L) mm
Pc = Degree of Ellipticity expressed as Stokes parameter S3/S0.
Working range is limited to the unshaded region in throughput curves (see brochure PDF).

Source: UltraFast Innovations manufacturer datasheet. Download the brochure (PDF) from the Documents tab for full details.

Specification Sheet PDF — Download
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Product Family: XUV / Soft X-ray Instruments (4 variants)

Product ▴▾ SKU Size ▴▾ Clear Aperture ▴▾ Operating Wavelength ▴▾
NEPAL — Coherent Ultrabroadband XUV/Soft X-ray Light Source (HHG) — — —Contact
K2 — XUV / IR Pulse Delay Unit (Customizable Double-Mirror) — — —Contact
EVEREST — Soft X-ray / XUV / VUV Spectrometer (1-200 nm, 6-1240 eV) — — —Contact
AURORA — XUV Phase Retarder / Quarter Waveplate (10-85 eV) Current — — —