High Harmonic Generation from Relativistic Plasma Mirrors


  Elkana Porat  ,  Assaf Levanon  ,  Itamar Cohen  ,  Roei Louzon  ,  Lanna Berry  ,  Dror Reichenberg  ,  Elior Urisman  ,  Ishay Pomeranz  
School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University
Applied Physics Division, Soreq NRC

The Plasma Mirror (PM) is an ideal model system to study relativistic optics; its geomtry is simple, and its dynamics are rich and non-linear. Emphasized by high order harmonic generation (HHG), relativistic PMs are a promising next-generation EUV source, unbounded in brightness and band-width. The applicability of these sources, however, is impeded at present because of of the stringent requirement on laser intensity and temporal contrast. To-date, PH-HHG at the relativistic regime are only generated using post-compression contrast enhancement, commonly in the form of PM-optical-switch. The complexity and low efficiency of this approach impose even stronger  requirement on laser peak-power. I will present our progress towards PM-HHG in the relativistic regime using the new commissioned 20TW laser system in Tel-Aviv U. The laser architecture is based on Pico-second Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification which provides a pristine laser contrast, sufficient to generate the harmonics directly. I will also review our method for controlling the spatial phase properties of the harmonics by tailoring the laser's focused intensity profile. Our first goal is to minimize the angular divergence of the EUV beam, forming the next step towards making these sources applicable.