High harmonics diffraction caused by an ellipticity grating

Abstract

We study the generation of high-harmonic beams by the non-collinear wave mixing of two circularly or elliptically polarized fundamental beams. Changing the ellipticity of the two fundamental beams changes the electric field structure in the focal plane, generating multiple high harmonics beamlets. We show that the ellipticity dependence of the harmonic dipole modulates the near-field harmonic intensity, resulting in the diffraction of the generated harmonics in the far-field.