Generation of high-order harmonics from solid surfaces by intense femtosecond laser pulses

Linde, D. von der; Engers, T.; Jenke, G.; Agostini, Pierre; Grillon, G.; Nibbering, Erik T. J.; Mysyrowicz, A.; Antonetti, A.

doi:10.1103/physreva.52.r25

Cited by 202 publications

(59 citation statements)

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“…HHG from condensed matter systems was first observed in the mid 90s [26,27]. In these early experiments, bulk metals and dielectrics irradiated with very intense near-infrared laser fields (of the order of 10 18 W/cm 2 ) were shown to emit harmonic radiation as a result of plasma oscillations induced in the system (see also [28]) Due to the high intensity of the field, HHG was always accompanied by sample damage.…”

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“…Furthermore the HHG process itself contains the signature of the parent-ion dynamics occurring during the round trip of the traveling electron. Thus the analysis of the HHG spectral features can also reveal important aspects of such dynamics [19][20][21][22][23][24][25].HHG from condensed matter systems was first observed in the mid 90s [26,27]. In these early experiments, bulk metals and dielectrics irradiated with very intense near-infrared laser fields (of the order of 10 18 W/cm 2 ) were shown to emit harmonic radiation as a result of plasma oscillations induced in the system (see also [28]) Due to the high intensity of the field, HHG was always accompanied by sample damage.…”

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Tuning high-harmonic generation by controlled deposition of ultrathin ionic layers on metal surfaces

Aguirre

Martín

2016

Phys. Rev. B

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High harmonic generation (HHG) from semiconductors and insulators has become a very active area of research due to its great potential for developing compact HHG devices. Here we show that by growing monolayers (ML) of insulators on single-crystal metal surfaces, one can tune the harmonic spectrum by just varying the thickness of the ultrathin layer, not the laser properties. This is shown from numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for nML NaCl/Cu(111) systems (n = 1 − 50) based on realistic potentials available in the literature. Remarkably, the harmonic cutoff increases linearly with n and as much as an order of magnitude when going from n = 1 to 30, while keeping the laser intensity low and the wavelength in the near-infrared range. Furthermore, the degree of control that can be achieved in this way is much higher than by varying the laser intensity. The origin of this behavior is the reduction of electronic "friction" when moving from the essentially discrete energy spectrum associated with a few-ML system to the continuous energy spectrum (bands) inherent to an extended periodic system. PACS numbers: 42.65. Ky,78.66.Nk, Discovered in the 1980's [1-3], high harmonic generation (HHG) has become the fundamental tool of modern attoscience [4][5][6]. In HHG from atomic or molecular gases, a strong laser field ionizes an electron, which then gains energy from the field and returns to the parent ion, where it finally recombines converting the gained energy into high-frequency radiation [7][8][9][10]. The process repeats every half-cycle of the ionizing field, thus leading to a sequence of attosecond light bursts that contain multiples of the fundamental laser frequency, ω 0 . Since electronic motion in atomic and molecular systems occurs in the attosecond time scale, light pulses arising from HHG are currently used to probe electron dynamics in those systems [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Furthermore the HHG process itself contains the signature of the parent-ion dynamics occurring during the round trip of the traveling electron. Thus the analysis of the HHG spectral features can also reveal important aspects of such dynamics [19][20][21][22][23][24][25].HHG from condensed matter systems was first observed in the mid 90s [26,27]. In these early experiments, bulk metals and dielectrics irradiated with very intense near-infrared laser fields (of the order of 10 18 W/cm 2 ) were shown to emit harmonic radiation as a result of plasma oscillations induced in the system (see also [28]) Due to the high intensity of the field, HHG was always accompanied by sample damage. More recent experiments have made use of nano tips and nano spheres [29][30][31][32][33], from which HHG has been produced by using relatively moderate fields (of the order of 10 12 W/cm 2 ). HHG has also been observed in bulk semiconductors and insulators [34][35][36][37][38][39][40] by using similar low intensities (even lower than those usually needed to generate high harmonics in the gas phase) and longer wavelengths, down ...

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Tuning high-harmonic generation by controlled deposition of ultrathin ionic layers on metal surfaces

Aguirre

Martín

2016

Phys. Rev. B

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“…When one is investigating the multiphoton photo-effect and harmonic generation at metal surfaces, one has to distinguish between two different regimes. If the laser power is very high and the laser pulses are very short, then a radiation-compressed surface plasma gets formed and harmonics can be formed in this overdense quasi-free-electron cloud [3][4][5][6]. In the second case, which will be considered here, much effort is devoted to keeping the solid surface unheated.…”

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The multiphoton photo-effect and harmonic generation at metal surfaces

Varró

Ehlotzky

1997

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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Abstract. By using a dipole-layer model for the scattering of electrons at a metal surface in a laser field, we show that, at relatively moderate laser intensities of some 10 10 W cm −2 of a Nd:YAG laser, photo-electrons of very high nonlinear order are generated having energies of up to about 500 eV. Similarly, we predict harmonics of very high order under the same parameter conditions. The high-order electron-energy spectrum agrees very well with recent observations by Farkas et al (Phys. Rev. A 41 4123 (1990); Opt. Eng. 32 2476(1993). With our model predictions one does not need to resort to the mechanism of Coulomb explosion in order to explain the observed high-energy photo-electrons.

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“…This last effect is confirmed experimentally. High-order harmonic generation (HHG) by reflection of an intense laser beam from an overdense plasma has been observed with very different types of lasers, from nanosecond CO 2 lasers to picosecond (ps) Nd-glass and femtosecond (fs) Ti-Sa lasers ( [1][2][3][4][5][6], and references therein). Two strong motivations drive these studies.…”

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