Influence of laser contrast on high-order harmonic generation from solid-density plasma surfaces

Gao, Jian and Liu, Feng and Ge, Xulei and Deng, Yanqing and Zhang, Guobo and Fang, Yuan and Wei, Wenqing and Yang, Su and Yuan, Xiaohui and Chen, Min and Sheng, Zhengming and Zhang, Jie (2017) Influence of laser contrast on high-order harmonic generation from solid-density plasma surfaces. Chinese Optics Letters, 15 (8). 081902. ISSN 1671-7694 (https://doi.org/10.3788/COL201715.081902)

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Abstract

The influence of laser temporal contrast on high-order harmonic generation from intense laser interactions with solid-density plasma surfaces is experimentally studied. A switchable plasma mirror system is set up to improve the contrast by two orders of magnitude at 10 ps prior to the main peak. By using the plasma mirror and tuning the prepulse, the dependence of high-order harmonic generation on laser contrast is investigated. Harmonics up to the 21st order via the mechanism of coherent wake emission are observed only when the targets are irradiated by high contrast laser pulses by applying the plasma mirror.

ORCID iDs

Gao, Jian, Liu, Feng, Ge, Xulei, Deng, Yanqing, Zhang, Guobo, Fang, Yuan, Wei, Wenqing, Yang, Su, Yuan, Xiaohui, Chen, Min, Sheng, Zhengming ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8823-9993 and Zhang, Jie;