High harmonic Mach–Zehnder interferometer for probing sub-laser-cycle electron dynamics in solids

Abstract

High harmonic emissions from crystalline solids contain rich information on the dynamics of electrons driven by intense infrared laser fields and have been intensively studied owing to their potential use as a probe of microscopic electronic structures. In particular, the ability to measure the temporal response of high harmonics may allow us to investigate electron dynamics directly. Here, we demonstrate a Mach–Zehnder high harmonic interferometer, where high harmonics are generated in each path of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer and an interferogram of them is captured. The high harmonic interferometer allows us to detect high harmonic signals with higher sensitivity than conventional high harmonic intensity measurements, and achieve a relative time resolution between the target and reference high harmonics of less than 150 attoseconds, which is sufficient to track sub-cycle dynamics of electrons in solids. Using high harmonic interferometry, we succeeded in capturing the real time dynamics of Floquet states in WSe2, whose indirect signature has so far been caught only by time-averaged measurements. Our simple technique could enable to access attosecond electron dynamics in solids.