The authors report the observation of very-high-order odd harmonics of Nd:YAG laser radiation in rare gases at an intensity of about 1013 W cm-2. Harmonic light as high as the 33rd harmonic in the XUV range (32.2 nm) is generated in argon. The key point is that the harmonic intensity falls slowly beyond the fifth harmonic as the order increases. Finally, a UV continuum, beginning at 350 nm and extending down towards the short wavelength region is apparent in xenon.

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The propagation of a high-irradiance laser beam in a plasma whose optical index depends nonlinearly on the light intensity is investigated through both theoretical and numerical analyses. The nonlinear effects examined herein are the relativistic decrease of the plasma frequency and the ponderomotive expelling of the electrons. This paper is devoted to focusing and defocusing effects of a beam assumed to remain cylindrical and for a plasma supposed homogeneous along the propagation direction but radially inhomogeneous with a parabolic density profile. A two-parameter perturbation expansion is used; these two parameters, assumed small with respect to unity, are the ratio of the laser wavelength to the radial electric-field gradient length and the ratio of the plasma frequency to the laser frequency. The laser field is described in the context of a time envelope and spatial paraxial approximations. An analytical expression is provided for the critical beam power beyond which self-focusing appears; it depends strongly on the plasma inhomogeneity and suggests the plasma density tailoring in order to lower this critical power. The beam energy radius evolution is obtained as a function of the propagation distance by numerically solving the paraxial equation given by the two-parameter expansion. The relativistic mass variation is shown to dominate the ponderomotive effect. For strong laser fields, self-focusing saturates due to corrections of fourth order in the electric field involved by both contributions.

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Multiply charged ions are easily formed in rare gases by multiphoton absorption processes. For Kr and Xe up to quadruply charged ions are formed. They are induced by a bandwidth-limited 50 ps laser pulse at 1.064 W cm-2 intensity range. Doubly charged ions are formed through the absorption of a very large number of photons (29 for Xe) in a direct transition from the ground state of the atom to the second ionisation limit. The percentage of Xe2+ ions relative to Xe+ ions is 1% at 1013 W cm-2, and reaches 20% at 1014 W cm-2. At 1.06 mu m, the removal of two electrons from the ground state of rare-gas atoms in a single step is responsible for the creation of doubly charged ions. This could be a general rule for atoms which have two or more electrons in the outer shell.