Perturbative High Harmonic Wave Front Control

We pattern the wave front of a high harmonic beam by intersecting the intense driving laser pulse that generates the high harmonic with a weak control pulse. To illustrate the potential of wave-front control, we imprint a Fresnel zone plate pattern on a harmonic beam, causing the harmonics to focus and defocus. The quality of the focus that we achieve is measured using the spectral wave-front optical reconstruction by diffraction method. We will show that it is possible to enhance the peak intensity by orders of magnitude without a physical optical element in the path of the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) beam. Through perturbative wave-front control, XUV beams can be created with a flexibility approaching what technology allows for visible and infrared light.