title: Ultra-fast switching of light by absorption saturation in vacuum ultra-violet region.
abstract: Advances in free electron lasers producing high energy photons [Nat. Photonics 2(9), 555-559 (2008)] are expected to open up a new science of nonlinear optics of high energy photons. Specifically, lasers of photon energy higher than the plasma frequency of a metal can show new interaction features because they can penetrate deeply into metals without strong reflection. Here we show the observation of ultra-fast switching of vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) light caused by saturable absorption of a solid metal target. A strong gating is observed at energy fluences above 6J/cm2 at wavelength of 51 nm with tin metal thin layers. The ratio of the transmission at high intensity to low intensity is typically greater than 100:1. This means we can design new nonlinear photonic devices such as auto-correlator and pulse slicer for the VUV region.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Laser Science, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo 1828585, Japan. yoneda@ils.uec.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hitoki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoneda
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Inubushi
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Yuta
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Fumiya
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Shunsuke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morimoto
authors.forename: Taisuke
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kumagai
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagasono
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Higashiya
authors.forename: Makina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yabashi
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: Haruhiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohashi
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: Hikaru
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.forename: Ryosuke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kodama
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008670:Metals / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays; D014618:Vacuum
chemical_list: D008670:Metals