Tunable Narrow-Band High Harmonic Beamline Optimized for Ultrafast Soft X-Ray Photoemission and Imaging

Coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) for short-wavelength imaging has proven revolutionary, allowing for the first time imaging with high numerical aperture and simultaneous phase- and amplitude-contrast. This development has created high commercial interest from the semiconductor and bio-medical industry as well as nano-science. Coherent extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray light sources are the front end of this technology and will be key to CDIs wide application. High order harmonic generation (HHG) is the most promising and feasible source for this application. In this proposal, we will develop an HHG based EUV and soft X-ray beamline to accompany an HHG source. . This beamline can be the front end of the future commercial EUV microscope. this phase IIb, we will build upon our current modularized monochromatic and tunable EUV beamline developed in the phase II program. Our approach is to improve the stability and reliability of the EUV source, and upgrade all beamline modules. For the CDI application, we will focus on optimizing a few key modules for the beamline to meet the key specifications. A soft X-ray version of the beamline will also be developed. Finally, both beamlines will be tested using CDI imaging. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: A tunable monochromatic beamline at EUV or soft X-ray wavelengths itself is a state-of-the-art light source for nano-technology and material science. A premier application where an EUV source plus tunable EUV monochromator can lead to transformative research is in CDI, as mentioned above. CDI using soft X-ray HHG can be a powerful tool to image cells and nanostructures with < 5nm spatial resolution, and to capture the fastest nanoscale dynamics in materials systems with elemental, chemical, and spin sensitivity.