Abstract
High-harmonic generation in isolated atoms and molecules has been widely utilized in extreme ultraviolet photonics and attosecond pulse metrology. Recently, high-harmonic generation has been observed in solids, which could lead to important applications such as all-optical methods to image valance charge density and reconstruct electronic band structures, as well as compact extreme ultraviolet light sources. So far these studies are confined to crystalline solids; therefore, decoupling the respective roles of long-range periodicity and high density has been challenging. Here we report the observation of high-harmonic generation from amorphous fused silica. We decouple the role of long-range periodicity by comparing harmonics generated from fused silica and crystalline quartz, which contain the same atomic constituents but differ in long-range periodicity. Our results advance current understanding of the strong-field processes leading to high-harmonic generation in solids with implications for the development of robust and compact extreme ultraviolet light sources.
Highlights
High-harmonic generation in isolated atoms and molecules has been widely utilized in extreme ultraviolet photonics and attosecond pulse metrology
We focus two-cycle laser pulses obtained from a high-efficiency optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) system[25] with a center wavelength of ~1700 nm (0.73 eV) into a 100 μm thick sample of amorphous fused silica
The harmonic spectrum from fused silica consists of odd-order harmonic peaks, the peak position may or may not correspond to the exact harmonic order depending on the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) setting
Summary
High-harmonic generation in isolated atoms and molecules has been widely utilized in extreme ultraviolet photonics and attosecond pulse metrology. High-harmonic generation has been observed in solids, which could lead to important applications such as all-optical methods to image valance charge density and reconstruct electronic band structures, as well as compact extreme ultraviolet light sources. MeraolS2c,rhysatvaellbineeensoulsiedds,fosruHchHaGs6–G14a.STe,heSiiOm2p, oArtra,ntKfir,ndMinggOs,, and such as high-energy cutoff scaling with the field[6], emergence of a secondary plateau[11, 17], and novel ellipticity dependence[14], indicate that the underlying electron dynamics are markedly different from the three-step recollision model, which is widely accepted for atomic and molecular HHG18 These fundamental differences are attributed to the high density and periodicity present in bulk crystals as the field-driven electron is always in the proximity of the Coulomb potential[6, 19]. The high-harmonic spectrum shows characteristics of both spatial and temporal coherence and the photon energy extends up to ~25 eV
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