Investigation of high harmonic generation using a high-power, 5-fs laser in a loose-focusing geometry

Summary form only given. Since its first observation almost three decades ago high-order harmonic generation (HHG) in gases became a reliable source of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulses, which gave the possibility to study electronic processes on their natural timescale [1, 2]. While the main building blocks of the experimental setups for gas HHG are the same in almost all cases, the focusing or medium geometry varies from realization to realization based on, for example, the available laser power [3, 4].In this work we study HHG in a loose focusing geometry by focusing a ~50-mm diameter (FWHM) beam with a mirror of 16-m focal length (f-number ~320). The main subject of this analysis is to compare low pressure - long interaction length (few millibars and tens of centimeters) with high pressure - short medium (hundreds of millibars and a few millimeters) scenarios and understand the underlying reasons for the observed XUV radiation parameters. The experiments are carried out with on target 35 mJ, sub-5 fs, 740 nm central wavelength pulses provided by an optical parametric synthesizer [5], producing high-energy pulses at the 100 eV spectral region [6]. The theoretical analysis is performed by simulation code based on a three-dimensional nonadiabatic model [7,8]. The good agreement between the experimental and simulation data (see Fig. 1) allows us to use the theoretical findings to gain better insight on the exact phase-matching processes providing the observed features. This detailed description is used to draw general conclusions of the high-harmonic generation process.