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The super-quadratic growth of high-harmonic signal as a function of pressure

Nature Physics volume 6, page 927 (2010)Cite this article

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A super-quadratic growth of high-harmonic (HHG) signal was measured by Seres et al.1 over more than five orders of magnitude as a function of gas pressure and for a large range of laser intensities. The authors explain this impressive growth as the signature of a strong increase of the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) signal induced by an additional stimulated effect, which they call X-ray parametric amplification (XPA). We performed a detailed analysis of the results in ref. 1 using the theory of pure HHG and taking into account all the effects of phase-matching. Our results demonstrate that, without introducing any adjustable parameter, phase-matching can account for the super-quadratic growth, and that pure HHG yields are in good agreement with the experimental data of ref. 1. Semiclassical2,3 and quantum4 theories provide accurate estimates of the initial amplitude and phase of the XUV polarization generated during single atom and electron interaction in the HHG processes.

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Figure 1: Signal from H43 as a function of pressure for three laser intensities, 1, 1.5 and 2 × 1014 W cm−2, compared with quadratic behaviour.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Paris-Sud, Laboratoire de Physique des Gaz et des Plasmas, UMR 8578, F-91405, Orsay, France

    S. Kazamias, S. Daboussi, O. Guilbaud, K. Cassou, C. Montet, O. Neveu, B. Cros, D. Ros & G. Maynard

  2. CNRS, F-91405, Orsay, France

    S. Kazamias, S. Daboussi, O. Guilbaud, K. Cassou, C. Montet, O. Neveu, B. Cros, D. Ros & G. Maynard

  3. LASERIX, CLUPS, University Paris-Sud, F-91405, Orsay, France

    S. Kazamias, S. Daboussi, O. Guilbaud, K. Cassou, C. Montet, O. Neveu, B. Cros & D. Ros

Authors
  1. S. Kazamias
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  2. S. Daboussi
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  3. O. Guilbaud
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  9. G. Maynard
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Correspondence to S. Kazamias.

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Kazamias, S., Daboussi, S., Guilbaud, O. et al. The super-quadratic growth of high-harmonic signal as a function of pressure. Nature Phys 6, 927 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1826

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