Conservation of orbital angular momentum throughout amplification of high order harmonics in Ni-like krypton and silver plasmas.

Abstract

In this article we present modelling results of the amplification of High Order Harmonics (HOH) carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) in plasma amplifiers created from krypton gas and silver solid targets. The resulting amplified beam is characterized in terms of intensity, phase and decomposition in helical and Laguerre-Gauss modes. Results show that the amplification process conserves OAM, although some degradation is apparent. Several structures appear in the intensity and phase profiles. These structures have been characterized with our model and related to refraction and interference with the plasma self-emission. Thus, these results not only demonstrate the capability of plasma amplifiers to deliver HOH amplified beams carrying OAM but also pave the way towards using HOH carrying OAM as a probe beam to diagnose the dynamics of hot, dense plasmas.