Lanthanum–molybdenum multilayer mirrors for attosecond pulses between 80 and 130 eV

A novel multilayer material system consisting of lanthanum and molybdenum nano-layers for both broadband and highly reflecting multilayer mirrors in the energy range between 80 and 130 eV is presented. The simulation and design of these multilayers were based on an improved set of optical constants, which were recorded by extreme ultraviolet (XUV)/soft-x-ray absorption measurements on freestanding lanthanum nano-films between 30 eV and 1.3 keV. Lanthanum–molybdenum (La/Mo) multilayer mirrors were produced by ion-beam sputtering and characterized through both x-ray and XUV reflectivity measurements. We demonstrate the ability to precisely simulate and realize aperiodic stacks. Their stability against ambient air conditions is demonstrated. Finally, the La/Mo mirrors were used in the generation of single attosecond pulses from high-harmonic cut-off spectra above 100 eV. Isolated 200 attosecond-long pulses were measured by XUV-pump/IR-probe 6 Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed. New Journal of Physics 13 (2011) 063038 1367-2630/11/063038+15$33.00 © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft