Probing coherently excited optical phonons by extreme ultraviolet radiation with femtosecond time resolution

We present a pump-probe experimental approach to study time-resolve coherent optical phonons using light pulses in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength range with femtosecond time resolution. Using this technique, a Bi (111)-oriented single crystal was excited by near-infrared (1.55 eV) pulses and probed by a high-order harmonic generation source, whose intrinsic flux instability was reduced by making use of a normalization procedure. This unconventional approach allowed us to perform measurements in a previously inaccessible range of phonon wavevectors within the Brillouin zone.