Coherent ultrashort X-ray pulses provide new ways to probe matter and its ultrafast dynamics^{1, 2, 3}. One of the promising paths to generate these pulses consists of using a nonlinear interaction with a system to strongly and periodically distort the waveform of intense laser fields, and thus produce high-order harmonics. Such distortions have so far been induced by using the nonlinear polarizability of atoms, leading to the production of attosecond light bursts⁴, short enough to study the dynamics of electrons in matter³. Shorter and more intense attosecond pulses, together with higher harmonic orders, are expected^{5, 6} by reflecting ultraintense laser pulses on a plasma mirror—a dense (10²³ electrons cm^-3) plasma with a steep interface. However, short-wavelength-light sources produced by such plasmas are known to generally be incoherent⁷. In contrast, we demonstrate that like in usual low-intensity reflection, the coherence of the light wave is preserved during harmonic generation on plasma mirrors. We then exploit this coherence for interferometric measurements and thus carry out a first study of the laser-driven coherent dynamics of the plasma electrons.

1. CEA, IRAMIS, Service des Photons Atomes et Molécules, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
2. Laser Physics and Nonlinear Optics Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, MESA⁺ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands
3. Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, 91 128 Palaiseau, France

Correspondence to: F. Quéré¹ e-mail: fabien.quere@cea.fr

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