Polarization pulse shaping induced by impulsive molecular alignment in optical filamentation and application to high-order harmonic generation.
We investigated theoretically and experimentally the ultrafast birefringence induced by impulsive alignment in a molecular gas during optical filamentation. This phenomenon is able to substantially affect the polarization state of an ultrashort laser pulse that propagates through the aligned medium at suitable delays from a first aligning pulse. We exploited this modulation of the polarization state in order to effectively control the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) process, which is strongly dependent on the driving pulse polarization. These results open new and fascinating perspectives for the tailoring of strong-field phenomena by means of polarization pulse shaping.
Negro
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Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano & CNR-IFN, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, 20133 Milano, Italy.
Vozzi
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Calegari
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De Silvestri
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Stagira
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