Article abstract
Nature Physics 3, 270 - 275 (2007)
Published online: 25 February 2007 | doi:10.1038/nphys541
Subject Categories: Optical physics | Atomic and molecular physics
Quasi-phase-matching and quantum-path control of high-harmonic generation using counterpropagating light
Xiaoshi Zhang, Amy L. Lytle, Tenio Popmintchev, Xibin Zhou, Henry C. Kapteyn, Margaret M. Murnane & Oren Cohen
Abstract
High-order harmonic upconversion of femtosecond lasers produces a unique source of short-wavelength light with femtosecond-to-attosecond pulse duration. However, because the involved nonlinear medium is a partially ionized gas, traditional approaches for phase-matching the conversion process are not applicable. This severely limits the flux from this source. Here, we demonstrate the first use of a train of counterpropagating light pulses to enhance high-harmonic emission. This all-optical quasi-phase-matching technique uses interfering beams to scramble the quantum phase of the generated short-wavelength light, to suppress emission from out-of-phase regions. Selective enhancement of more than 300 is observed at photon energies around 70 eV in argon gas. Finally, we show that by adjusting the intensity of the counterpropagating light, different electron quantum trajectories can be selectively enhanced, demonstrating attosecond-timescale coherent control of the radiating electron wavefunction.
- JILA and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
Correspondence to: Xiaoshi Zhang e-mail: xiaoshi@jilau1.colorado.edu
Correspondence to: Margaret M. Murnane e-mail: murnane@jila.colorado.edu
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