Harmonics Generation in the Laser-Induced Plasmas of Metal and Semiconductor Carbide Nanoparticles

Abstract

Carbon-containing plasma is an attractive medium for generation of harmonics of laser pulses in the extreme ultraviolet range. We ablate two metal carbide (B4C and Cr3C2) nanoparticles and silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles and generate harmonics after propagation of 35 fs pulses through the laser-induced plasmas. We analyze the spectra, spectral shifts, and splitting of harmonics from nanoparticles-contained plasmas, which demonstrate the chirp-related harmonic cut-off scaling. In addition, we present the simplified two-color pump model calculations of HHG based on the strong field approximation.

Keywords

• B₄C
• Cr₃C₂
• SiC
• high-order harmonics generation
• laser-induced plasma
• chirped pulses