Intense harmonics with time-varying orbital angular momentum from relativistic plasma mirrors

2021/12/30 by Jingwei Wang, Matt Zepf, Wang, Jingwei +7
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Optics (physics.optics) #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2112.14892

openalex publication_date 2021/12/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

In this work using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations and analytical considerations we demonstrate intense high-order plasma surface harmonics carrying a time-varying orbital angular momentum (OAM) -- the self-torque. We show that by using two laser beams with different OAMs l₁ and l₂ and a certain delay between each other and shooting them obliquely on an overdense plasma target, one can generate harmonics with OAM spanning nl₁ to nl₂, where n is the order of the harmonic. Such intense self-torqued harmonics can offer new possibilities in ultrafast spectroscopy.

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