Spatial fingerprint of quantum path interferences in high order harmonic generation

We have spatially and spectrally resolved the high order harmonic emission from an argon gas target. Under proper phase matching conditions we were able to observe for the first time the spatial fine structure originating from the interference of the two shortest quantum paths in the harmonic beam. The structure can be explained by the intensity-dependent harmonic phase of the contributions from the two paths. The spatially and spectrally resolved measurements are consistent with previous spatially integrated results. Our measurement method represents a new tool to clearly distinguish between different interference effects and to potentially observe higher order trajectories in the future with improved detection sensitivity. Here, we demonstrate additional experimental evidence that the observed interference pattern is only due to quantum-path interferences and cannot be explained by a phase modulation effect. Our experimental results are fully supported by simulations using the strong field approximation and including propagation.