Polarisation States of High Harmonic Generation from Aligned Molecules
Abstract
We present detailed theoretical calculations based on the recently developed quantitative rescattering theory (QRS) for polarisation and ellipticity of high-order harmonics from aligned N₂ and O₂ generated with mid-infrared linearly polarised laser pulses. Within the QRS, the two polarisation states of high-order harmonics are due to the high-energy photons emitted with polarisation parallel or perpendicular to the direction of the same returning electron wave packet in the photo-recombination process. The complex transition dipoles responsible for these two components have, in general, difference phases, which results in the ellipticity of emitted harmonics. Our results show clear target-species dependent polarisation states. In particular, we found strong harmonic ellipticity in aligned N₂, but weak ellipticity in aligned O₂ for harmonics below 100 eV. We further show the factorisation of the macroscopic high harmonic generation under typical experimental conditions. This implies that results of polarisation measurements are quite robust to the macroscopic phase matching conditions.
Recommended Citation
A. Le and C. D. Lin, "Polarisation States of High Harmonic Generation from Aligned Molecules," Journal of Modern Optics, vol. 58, no. 13, pp. 1158 - 1165, Taylor & Francis, Jul 2011.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/09500340.2011.564737
Department(s)
Physics
Keywords and Phrases
High-Harmonic Generation; Intense Lasers; Molecular Alignment
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0950-0340
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2011 Taylor & Francis, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Jul 2011
