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Bright High-Harmonic Generation through Coherent Synchrotron Emission Based on the Polarization Gating Scheme

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Chuliang Zhou
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Ye Tian*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Yushan Zeng
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Zhinan Zeng*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Ruxin Li
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China
*
Correspondence should be addressed to Ye Tian; tianye@siom.ac.cn
Correspondence should be addressed to Ye Tian; tianye@siom.ac.cn

Abstract

Relativistic surface high harmonics, combined with the use of polarization gating, present a promising route towards intense single attosecond pulses. However, they impose stringent requirements on ultra-high laser contrast and are restricted by large intensity losses in real experiments. Here, we numerically demonstrate that by setting an optimal time delay in the polarization gating scheme, the intensity of the generated single attosecond pulses can become approximately 100 times stronger than that with nonoptimal time delay in the coherent synchrotron emission process. When a petawatt-class driving laser irradiates a solid target, an ultra-dense electron nanobunch and a strong space-charge sheath develop, and the accumulated electrostatic energy is only released in half of the laser cycle when this electron nanobunch moves backward. This process results in the emission of intense high harmonics. Our study provides a reliable method for developing bright attosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 Chuliang Zhou et al.
Figure 0

Figure 1: (a) Schematic of intense extreme ultraviolet pulse generation with polarization gating scheme, which consists of two counter-rotating circularly polarized (CP) laser pulses normally incident on a solid target. These collinear left and right CP laser pulses create a linear gate in the middle portion. (b) Illustration of the electron density profiles when the front CP laser part irradiates the target. The preplasma is compressed and an ultra-dense electron nanobunch is formed. (c) When the linear polarization of the laser reaches the target surface, the dense electron nanobunch is accelerated by the charge-separation and laser electric field to relativistic velocities in a half laser cycle; thus, intense extreme ultraviolet pulses would be emitted.

Figure 1

Figure 2: (a) Evolution of the ellipticity in polarization gating with different relative time delays. (b) Electron density (ne) right before the generation of the most intense attosecond pulse. PIC simulation parameters: a = 10, time delay Td = 16 fs, and Ls = 0.2 λL. (c) Obtained radiation pulse intensity by applying a spectral filter to select the 30th to 100th harmonic orders. PIC simulation parameters: a = 10, time delay Td = 12 fs, and Ls = 0.1 λL. (d, g, j) Dependence of the shortest width and number density of the electron bunch on the preplasma scale length, time delay, and laser intensity. (e, h, k) Dependence of efficiency of harmonic generation on preplasma scale length, time delay, and laser intensity. (f, i, l) The dependence of number and the peak intensity of gated attosecond pulses (30th–100th) on the preplasma scale length, time delay, and laser intensity. Simulation parameters (d, e, f) a = 10, time delay Td = 6 fs; (g, h, i) a = 10, Ls = 0.1 λL; (j, k, l) time delay Td = 6 fs, Ls = 0.1 λL.

Figure 2

Figure 3: (a, b) Harmonics generation efficiency as a function of both plasma scale length and delay of the two circular polarized pulses in polarization gating. (c, d) The number and corresponding peak intensity of gated attosecond pulses (30th–100th) as a function of preplasma scale length and delay between the two circular polarized pulses in the polarization gating scheme. The intensity of the incident field is a = 10, the pulse duration τ is 16 fs, and solid-target density is 100 nc. Results for harmonics within the range from 10th to 20th (a) and from 20th to 100th (b) are presented.

Figure 3

Figure 4: PIC simulation results for two different time delay cases: Td = 16 fs (left panel, originally thought to be suitable for isolated attosecond pulse generation) and Td = 0 (right panel, corresponding to linear polarized laser), other parameters: a = 10, Ls = 0.2 λL, and incidence angle θ = 0. (a, d) The incoming and reflected electric fields at a fixed position before the target surface, respectively. (b, e) Fourier spectra of the reflected pulses. The dashed line marks the universal scaling law I∝ω−8/3 predicted based on the Baeva–Gordienko–Pukhov (BGP) theory. (c, f) The time-frequency analyses of the HHG plotted on a logarithmic scale.

Figure 4

Figure 5: (a) Spatiotemporal density evolution of the electrons overlaid with longitudinal current density Jx(x, t) for the polarization gating case. The overall motion of the front surface consists of longitudinal oscillations twice every laser period. (b) Electron density on a logarithmic scale and the emission of harmonic pulse. The harmonic fields are frequency-filtered by N > 10th order, showing that the harmonic pulses are emitted in the form of an attosecond pulse train. Radiation is efficiently emitted at the moments when the longitudinal momenta of the electrons reach a maximum, which is also when both transverse momenta of the plasma surface electrons reach zero simultaneously.

Figure 5

Figure 6: 2D PIC simulation. (a) Intensity boost and modulation of harmonic spectrum in the polarization gating scheme. The intensity of HHG with optimal time delay (red curve) can be increased by approximately 100 times when compared with the other nonoptimal time delay (blue curve). The other simulation parameters are a = 10, τ = 6 T0, ne = 100 nc, Ls = 0.2 λL, and normal incidence. (b, c) Snapshots of electron density at different times when the time delay is 6 fs. The other simulation parameters are a = 10, τ = 6 T0, ne = 100 nc, Ls = 0.2 λL, and normal incidence.

Figure 6

Figure 7: (a, b) The spatiotemporal evolution of electron density with delay Td = 6 fs and 12 fs, respectively. (c) Obtained radiation pulse intensity by applying a spectral filter to select the 30th to 100th harmonic orders at Td = 6 fs. (d) Zoomed view of a single pulse with envelope fitting (red). The other simulation parameters are a = 10, τ = 6 T0, Ls = 0.2 λL, ne = 100 nc, and normal incidence.