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Kerr-type nonlinearities form the basis for our physical understanding ofnonlinear optical phenomena in condensed matter, such as self-focusing,solitary waves, and wave mixing. In strong fields, they are complemented byhigher-order nonlinearities that enable high harmonic generation, which iscurrently understood as the interplay of light-driven intraband charge dynamicsand interband recombination. Remarkably, the nonlinear response emerging fromthe associated sub-cycle injection dynamics of electrons into the conductionband has been almost completely overlooked in solids and only partiallyconsidered in the gas phase. Here we reveal this strong-field-inducednonlinearity in amorphous wide-bandgap dielectrics by means of time-resolved,low-order wave mixing experiments and show that close to the material damagethreshold the so far unexplored injection current provides the leadingcontribution. The sensitivity of the harmonic emission to the sub-cycleionization dynamics offers an original approach to characterize the evolutionof laser-induced plasma formation in optical microprocessing.

Origin of strong-field induced low-order harmonic generation in amorphous solids