Shaping electron-hole trajectories for solid-state high harmonic generation control.

Abstract

Solid-state high-harmonic generation (HHG) by an intense infra-red (IR) laser field offers a new route to generate coherent attosecond light pulses in the extreme ultraviolet regime. The propagation of the IR driving field in the dense solid medium is accompanied by non-linear processes which shape the generating waveform. In this work, we introduce a monolithic scheme in which we both exploit the non-linear propagation to manipulate a two color driving field, as well as generate high harmonics within a single crystal. We show that the resulting non-commensurate, bi-chromatic, generating field provides precise control over the periodicity of the HHG process. This control enables us to manipulate the spectral positions of the discrete harmonic peaks. Our method advances solid-state HHG spectroscopy, and offers a simple route towards tunable, robust XUV sources.