High-harmonic generation from an epsilon-near-zero material
Abstract
High-harmonic generation (HHG) from a compact, solid-state medium is highly desirable for applications such as coherent attosecond pulse generation and extreme ultra-violet (EUV) spectroscopy, yet the typically weak conversion of pump light to HHG can largely hinder its applications. Here, we use a material operating in its epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) region, where the real part of its permittivity vanishes, to greatly boost the efficiency of the HHG process at the microscopic level. In experiments, we report high-harmonic emission up to the 9th order directly from a low-loss, solid-state ENZ medium: indium-doped cadmium oxide, with an excitation intensity at the GW cm-2 level. Furthermore, the observed HHG signal exhibits a pronounced spectral red-shift as well as linewidth broadening, resulting from the photo-induced electron heating and the consequent time-dependent resonant frequency of the ENZ film. Our results provide a novel nanophotonic platform for strong field physics, reveal new degrees of freedom for spectral and temporal control of HHG, and open up possibilities of compact solid-state attosecond light sources.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1902.03539,
title = {High-harmonic generation from an epsilon-near-zero material},
author = {Yuanmu Yang and Jian Lu and Alejandro Manjavacas and Ting S. Luk and Hanzhe Liu and Kyle Kelley and Jon-Paul Maria and Michael B. Sinclair and Shambhu Ghimire and Igal Brener},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1902.03539},
year = {2019}
}