High-order harmonic generation by nonlinear reflection of an intense high-contrast laser pulse on a plasma.

@article{Monot2004HighorderHG,
  title={High-order harmonic generation by nonlinear reflection of an intense high-contrast laser pulse on a plasma.},
  author={Pascal Monot and Gilles Doumy and Sundrine Dobosz and Michel Perdrix and Pascal d'Oliveira and F. Qu{\'e}r{\'e} and Fabrice R{\'e}au and Ph. A. Martin and Patrick Audebert and Jean-Claude J. Gauthier and J. P. Geindre},
  journal={Optics letters},
  year={2004},
  volume={29 8},
  pages={
          893-5
        }
}
We demonstrate the use of a plasma mirror to obtain 60-fs 10-TW laser pulses with a temporal contrast of 10(8) on a nanosecond time scale and 10(6) on a picosecond time scale, and we use these high-contrast pulses to generate high harmonics by nonlinear reflection on a plasma with a steep electronic density gradient. Well-collimated harmonics up to 20th order are observed for a laser intensity of approximately equal to 3 x 10(17) W/cm2, whereas no harmonics are obtained without the plasma… 
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