Temporal characterization of a time-compensated monochromator for high-efficiency selection of extreme-ultraviolet pulses generated by high-order harmonics

Ultrafast extreme-ultraviolet pulses are spectrally selected by a time-delay-compensated grating monochromator. The intrinsic very short duration of the pulses is obtained by exploiting the high-order harmonic generation process. The temporal characterization of the harmonic pulses is obtained using a cross-correlation method: pulses as short as 8 fs are measured at the output of the monochromator in the case of the 23rd harmonic. This value is in agreement with the expected duration of such pulses, indicating that the influence of the monochromator is negligible. The photon flux has been measured with a calibrated photodiode, pointing out the good efficiency of the monachromator, derived by the exploitation for the two gratings of the conical diffraction mounting. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.