On the optical analysis of the ray path-lengths in the diffraction of femtosecond XUV and soft X-ray pulses

During the diffraction of a femtosecond pulse with a grating, apart spectral filtering, there occurs a time stretching due to the difference in the path length among the rays diffracted, even of equal wavelength. The reason resides in the action of the grating: to depart from the behavior of the mirror, that is, alpha = beta, and to direct the rays in directions whose paths are groove-by-groove different of m lambda. The compensation of this broadening is studied in the following by using a pair of grating in a particular mounting. The configuration is studied for the application in the selection of one single laser harmonics in the framework of high order harmonic generation processes.