Spectral control of high harmonics from relativistic plasmas using bicircular fields

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.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Bright high-order harmonic generation with controllable polarization from a relativistic plasma mirror

Ultrafast extreme ultraviolet (XUV) sources with a controllable polarization state are powerful tools for investigating the structural and electronic as well as the magnetic properties of materials. However, such light sources are still limited to only a few free-electron laser facilities and, very recently, to high-order harmonic generation from noble gases. Here we propose and numerically demonstrate a laser-plasma scheme to generate bright XUV pulses with fully controlled polarization. In this scheme, an elliptically-polarized laser pulse is obliquely incident on a plasma surface, and the reflected radiation contains pulse trains and isolated circularly- or highly-elliptically-polarized attosecond XUV pulses. The harmonic polarization state is fully controlled by the laser-plasma parameters. The mechanism can be explained within the relativistically oscillating mirror model. This scheme opens a practical and promising route to generate bright attosecond XUV pulses with desirable ellipticities in a straightforward and efficient way for a number of applications.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Strain-controlled high harmonic generation with Dirac fermions in silicene

Two-dimensional (2D) materials with zero band gap exhibit remarkable electronic properties with wide tunability. High harmonic generation (HHG) in such materials offers unique platforms to develop novel optoelectronic devices at nanoscale, as well as to investigate strong-field and ultrafast nonlinear behaviour of massless Dirac fermions. However, control of HHG by modulating electronic structure of materials remains largerly unexplored to date. Here we report controllable HHG by tuning the electronic structures via mechanical engineering. Using an \textit{ab initio} approach based on time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT), we show that the HHG process is sensitive to the modulation of band structures of monolayer silicene while preserving the Dirac cones under biaxial and uniaxial strains, which can lead to significant enhancement of harmonic intensity up to an order of magnitude. With the additional advantage of silicene in compatibility and integration into the current silicon-based electronic industry, this study may open a new avenue to develop efficient solid-state optoelectronic nano-devices, and provide a valuable tool to understand the strong-field and mechanically induced ultrafast nonlinear response of Dirac carriers in 2D materials.Comment: 24pages, 7 figure

Circularly polarized extreme ultraviolet high harmonic generation in graphene

Circularly polarized extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation is highly interesting for investigation of chirality-sensitive light-matter interactions. Recent breakthroughs have enabled generation of such light sources via high harmonic generation (HHG) from rare gases. There is a growing interest in extending HHG medium from gases to solids, especially to 2D materials, as they hold great promise to develop ultra-compact solid-state photonic devices and provide insights into electronic properties of the materials themselves. However, HHG in graphene driven by terahertz to mid-infrared fields reported so far only generate low harmonic orders, and furthermore no harmonics driven by circularly polarized lasers. Here, using first-principles simulations within a time-dependent density-functional theory framework, we show that it is possible to generate HHG extending to the XUV spectral region in monolayer extended graphene excited by near-infrared lasers. Moreover, we demonstrate that a single circularly polarized driver is enough to ensure HHG in graphene with circular polarization. The corresponding spectra reflect the six-fold rotational symmetry of the graphene crystal. Extending HHG in graphene to the XUV spectral regime and realizing circular polarization represent an important step towards the development of novel nanoscale attosecond photonic devices and numerous applications such as spectroscopic investigation and nanoscale imaging of ultrafast chiral and spin dynamics in graphene and other 2D materials.Comment: 5 figure

Strong-field nonlinear optical properties of monolayer black phosphorus

Within the past few years, atomically thin black phosphorus (BP) has been demonstrated as a fascinating new 2D material that is promising for novel nanoelectronics and nanophotonics applications, due to its many unique properties such as direct and widely tunable bandgap, high carrier mobility and remarkable intrinsic in-plane anisotropy. However, its important extreme nonlinear behavior and ultrafast dynamics of carriers under strong-field excitation have yet to be revealed to date. Herein, we report nonperturbative high harmonic generation (HHG) in monolayer BP by first-principles simulations. We show that BP exhibits extraordinary HHG properties, with clear advantages over three major types of 2D materials under intensive study, i.e., semimetallic graphene, semiconducting MoS$_2$, and insulating hexagonal boron nitride, in terms of HHG cutoff energy and spectral intensity. This study advances the scope of current research activities of BP into a new regime, suggesting its promising future in applications of extreme-ultraviolet and attosecond nanophotonics, and also opening doors to investigate the strong-field and ultrafast carrier dynamics of this emerging material.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure

Wavebreaking-associated transmitted emission of attosecond extreme-ultraviolet pulses from laser-driven overdense plasmas

We present a new mechanism of attosecond extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulses generation from a relativistic laser-driven overdense plasma surfaces in the wavebreaking regime. Through particle-in-cell simulations and analysis, we demonstrate that the observed ultrashort XUV emission for the parameters we considered is predominantly due to a strong plasma-density oscillation subsequent to wavebreaking. The coupling of the strong density variation and the transverse fields in the front surface layer gives rise to the transmitted emission with frequencies mainly around the local plasma frequency. This mechanism provides new insights into the scenarios of XUV generation from solid surfaces and the dynamics of laser-plasma interactions.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure

Enabling the self-contained refrigerator to work beyond its limits by filtering the reservoir

In this paper, we study the quantum self-contained refrigerator [N. Linden, S. Popescu and P. Skrzypczyk, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{105}, 130401 (2010)] in the strong internal coupling regime with engineered reservoirs. We find that if some modes of the three thermal reservoirs can be properly filtered out, the efficiency and the working domain of the refrigerator can be improved in contrast to the those in the weak internal coupling regime, which indicates one advantage of the strong internal coupling. In addition, we find that the background natural vacuum reservoir could cause the filtered refrigerator to stop working and the background natural thermal reservoir could greatly reduce the cooling efficiency.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Intense isolated few-cycle attosecond XUV pulses from overdense plasmas driven by tailored laser pulses

A method to generate an intense isolated few-cycle attosecond XUV pulse is demonstrated using particle-in-cell simulations. When a tailored laser pulse with a sharp edge irradiates a foil target, a strong transverse net current can be excited, which emits a few-cycle XUV pulse from the target rear side. The isolated pulse is ultrashort in the time domain with a duration of several hundred attoseconds. It also has a narrow bandwidth in the spectral domain compared to other XUV sources of high-order harmonics. It has most energy confined around the plasma frequency and no low-harmonic orders below the plasma frequency. It is also shown that XUV pulse of peak field strength up to $8\times 10^{12}$ V$\mathrm{m}^{-1}$ can be produced. Without the need for pulse selecting and spectral filtering, such an intense few-cycle XUV pulse is better suited to a number of applications.Comment: 9 pages,5 figures; Published in Optics Expres

Probing structural chirality of crystals using high harmonic generation in solids

Structural chirality plays an important role in solid state physics and leads to a variety of novel physics. The feasibility of probing structural chirality of crystals using high harmonic generation in solids is explored in this work. Through first-principles calculations based on the time-dependent density functional theory framework, we demonstrate that evident circular dichroism (CD) effects can be induced in the high harmonic spectra from a chiral crystal -- bulk tellurium. The CD signal reverses for crystals with opposite structural chirality. Besides, the high harmonic spectroscopy also provides an all-optical method for probing lattice symmetry properties and determining orientation of the tellurium crystal.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Intense high harmonic vector beams from relativistic plasma mirrors

Vector beam, with a spatial nonuniform polarization distribution, is important for many applications due to its unique field characteristics and novel effects when interacting with matter. Here through three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we demonstrate that intense vector beams in the extreme-ultraviolet to x-ray spectral region can be generated by means of high harmonic generation (HHG) in the relativistic regime. The vector features of the fundamental laser beam can be transferred to the higher frequency emission coherently during the extreme nonlinear HHG dynamics from relativistic plasma mirrors. The vector harmonic beams can be synthesized into attosecond vector beams. It is also possible to generate vector harmonic beam carrying orbital angular momentum. Such bright vortices and vector light sources present new opportunities in various applications such as imaging with high spatial and temporal resolution, ultrafast magnetic spectroscopy, and particle manipulation.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure