Selection of a single femtosecond high-order harmonic using a zone plate based monochromator

We report the use of zone plate optics as a monochromator for the spectral selection of a single high-order harmonic of a femtosecond laser generated in a rare gas medium. We show that this is a convenient way of monochromatizing the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) pulses in the photon energy range from 30 up to 70 eV while keeping the pulse duration in the femtosecond range. We measure the emission spectra with a typical energy resolution of E/Delta E=60. Comparably high transmission and diffraction efficiencies allow the record of images of different harmonics using a camera within a few seconds of acquisition time. This is our first step toward a VUV microscope with a submicrometer spatial resolution and femtosecond time resolution. Possible applications of this setup are also discussed. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.