Open AccessThe influence of plasma defocusing in high harmonic generation
Author(s) -
Chien-Jen Lai,
Franz X. Kärtner
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.19.022377
Subject(s) - high harmonic generation , physics , plasma , wavelength , optics , harmonic , scaling , ionization , phase matching , computational physics , laser , quantum mechanics , ion , geometry , mathematics
We numerically investigate the influence of plasma defocusing in high harmonic generation (HHG) by solving the first-order wave equation in an ionized medium and defining an enhancement factor to quantitatively analyze the influence of plasma defocusing. While degrading the driver pulse intensity, plasma also has a strong impact on HHG phase-matching. Combined with the HHG wavelength scaling law, our results give an estimate of HHG efficiencies with different driver wavelengths and show a limited HHG efficiency in high density media.