Hannover 2016 – scientific programme

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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 8: Laser Plasmas I

P 8.5: Talk

Tuesday, March 1, 2016, 15:45–16:00, b302

Bright high-order harmonic generation with controllable polarization from a relativistic plasma mirror — •Ziyu Chen and Alexander Pukhov — Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

We propose and numerically demonstrate a new path to generate bright high-order harmonics in the extreme-ultraviolet spectral region with controllable polarization. The method is based on the use of a circular-polarized relativistic laser pulse obliquely incidence on a plasma surface. The mechanism can be explained by the relativistic oscillating mirror model. We show that simply by changing the incidence angle, the polarization state of the harmonics can be finely tunned, from quasi-circular polarization to elliptical polarization to linear polarization. Changing the helicity of the laser, the helicity of the harmonics can also be reversed. The efficiency is comparable to the case with linear polarized laser. Our results thus provide a straightforward and efficient way to obtain bright high harmonic source with desirable ellipticities, which has proven to be extrmely useful for a number of studies such as ultrafast circular dichroism of molecules and magnetic materials.