Spectral control of high harmonics from relativistic plasmas using bicircular fields

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel method using bicircular laser fields to control high harmonic generation from relativistic plasma mirrors, enabling spectral tuning and polarization control with high efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a new spectral control technique for HHG using two-color counterrotating circularly polarized fields, demonstrated through particle-in-cell simulations.

Findings

Selective harmonic orders appear due to symmetry and conservation laws.

Adjusting intensity ratios tunes HHG efficiency and polarization.

HHG efficiency comparable to linear polarization schemes.

Abstract

We introduce two-color counterrotating circularly polarized laser fields as a new way to spectrally control high harmonic generation (HHG) from relativistic plasma mirrors. Through particle-in-cell simulations, we show that only a selected group of harmonic orders can appear owing to the symmetry of the laser fields and the related conservation laws. By adjusting the intensity ratio of the two driving field components, we demonstrate the overall HHG efficiency, the relative intensity of allowed neighboring harmonic orders, and the polarization state of the harmonic source can be tuned. The HHG efficiency of this scheme can be as high as that driven by a linearly polarized laser field.