Generation and control of Doppler harmonics approaching $10^{22}\textrm{W/cm}^2$ on plasma mirrors
Plasma Physics
2026-02-12 v1
Abstract
In this letter, we report Doppler harmonic generation with a relativistic plasma mirror at unprecedented intensities using a PetaWatt-class laser. We show that beyond a few a precise control of the laser contrast at the sub-picosecond time scale becomes essential to drive the efficient generation of high-order harmonics. Such control is paramount for deploying plasma mirrors in high-field applications at PetaWatt-class laser facilities, including, for instance, their use as intensity boosters in the pursuit of the strong-field regime of quantum electrodynamics.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.10709,
title = {Generation and control of Doppler harmonics approaching $10^{22}\textrm{W/cm}^2$ on plasma mirrors},
author = {Baptiste Groussin and Philipp Sikorski and Aodhan McIlvenny and Kosta Oubrerie and Pierre Bartoli and Lieselotte Obst-Huebl and Anthony Vazquez and Lulu Russell and Tirtha Mandal and Kei Nakamura and Anthony J. Gonsalves and Cameron G. R. Geddes and Luca Fedeli and Henri Vincenti and Adrien Leblanc},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.10709},
year = {2026}
}