Max-Born-Instotute , Germany

The unique conversion efficiency of laser radiation in supercontinuum is achieved in SF6 forming uniform over-octave 300-950 nm spectrum. The different parts of this supercontinuum within 440-800 nm were compressed down to 8 fs. With a single broadband compressor the sub-5 fs pulses were detected. The filamentary mechanism admits the scalability to higher pulse energies with the example of self-compression of 3.8 mJ pulses. Another new two-step approach for generation of attosecond hard X-rays is exploited. In the first stage, hot electrons are produced in a primary water target and accelerated in forward direction towards the second interaction stage to generate hard X-ray or up-shifted radiation. First experimental evidence is supplied by generation of Cu K-shell flashes in new set-up.