Extreme Ultraviolet Second Harmonic Generation using a seeded soft X-ray laser

Non-linear interactions between light and matter are crucial for widespread applications in physical sciences, life science and engineering. Second harmonic generation (SHG) and sum-frequency generation spectroscopy in the near infrared and optical range have enabled intriguing insights into surface properties and how they influence for instance chemical reactions [1]. Expansion of these methods by developing non-linear X-ray spectroscopies has recently added the capability of studying surfaces [2] , symmetry-breaking [3] and buried interfaces [4] with elemental specificity. However, widespread application is currently limited by access to free-electron laser facilities. Here we report the first generation of second harmonic emission in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV-SHG) at the titanium M-edge. The experiments were carried out with a high-harmonic seeded SXRL [5] bringing nonlinear XUV spectroscopy with atomic specificity to the table-top. The SXRL pulses with an energy of (14 ± 2) nJ, a pulse duration of (1.73 ± 0.13) ps, wavelength of 32.8 nm and a Gaussian-like beam profile is focused down with a gold ellipsoidal mirror down to an elliptical spot with a size of roughly 20 m x 40 m. The estimated intensity on target is about of (1.0 ± 0.1)•10 10 W/cm 2. In the focus we exceeded the damage threshold fluence of 2 mJ/cm 2 and observed single-shot damage of 50 nm Ti foils. At these intensities we also generate second harmonic light at 75.6 eV. The fundamental and SHG beams are refocused with a toroidal mirror, spectrally separated by a grating and imaged on a cooled CCD camera.