Carrier-envelope phase measurement from half-cycle high harmonics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method to measure the carrier-envelope phase of laser pulses by analyzing half-cycle high harmonics generated in the process, allowing detailed pulse characterization.

Contribution

The method enables in situ retrieval of laser pulse parameters and extends CEP measurement to multi-cycle pulses using half-cycle harmonic analysis.

Findings

Successfully distinguishes half-cycle high harmonics in long pulses

Retrieves laser intensity, pulse duration, and CEP from harmonic spectrograms

Extends CEP measurement applicability to multi-cycle regimes

Abstract

We present a method to distinguish the high harmonics generated in individual half-cycle of the driving laser pulse by mixing a weak ultraviolet pulse, enabling one to observe the cutoff of each half-cycle harmonic. We show that the detail information of the driving laser pulse, including the laser intensity, pulse duration and carrier-envelope phase, can be {\it in situ} retrieved from the harmonic spectrogram. In addition, our results show that this method also distinguishes the half-cycle high harmonics for a pulse longer than 10 fs, suggesting a potential to extend the CEP measurement to the multi-cycle regime.