Quasi-phase-matching and quantum-path control of high-harmonic generation using counterpropagating light

TY - JOUR

T1 - Quasi-phase-matching and quantum-path control of high-harmonic generation using counterpropagating light

AU - Zhang, Xiaoshi

AU - Lytle, Amy L.

AU - Popmintchev, Tenio

AU - Zhou, Xibin

AU - Kapteyn, Henry C.

AU - Murnane, Margaret M.

AU - Cohen, Oren

N1 - Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge support for this work from the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy. This research made use of NSF Engineering Research Centers Shared Facilities supported by award number EEC-0310717. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to X.Z. or M.M.M.

PY - 2007/4/6

Y1 - 2007/4/6

N2 - 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 70eV 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.

AB - 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 70eV 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.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34047241475&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/nphys541

DO - 10.1038/nphys541

M3 - 文章

AN - SCOPUS:34047241475

SN - 1745-2473

VL - 3

SP - 270

EP - 275

JO - Nature Physics

JF - Nature Physics

IS - 4

ER -