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  • Open Access

Generation of circularly polarized high-order harmonics from single-color quantum light

L. Petrovic1,*, P. Stammer1,2, M. Lewenstein1, and J. Rivera-Dean1,3,†

  • *Contact author: lidija.petrovic@icfo.eu
  • †Contact author: physics.jriveradean@proton.me
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Phys. Rev. A 114, 013127 – Published 30 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6t4b-swyx

Abstract

The atomic response to an ultraintense driving field produces a characteristic high-harmonic spectrum featuring a rapid drop in intensity for the lower harmonics, followed by a plateau and a sharp cutoff. This response vanishes for circularly polarized classical drivers, a limitation that can be overcome by introducing quantum features into the driving field. In this work, we show that squeezed highly elliptically polarized drivers not only enable the high-harmonic generation (HHG) process in classically forbidden regimes of large ellipticity, but also yield highly elliptical harmonic radiation with pronounced super-Poissonian photon statistics. Moreover, we show that the HHG spectral features encode information about the quantum nature of the driving field, revealing the presence of its squeezed field fluctuations. By analyzing the HHG spectral intensity dependence as a function of the driver's ellipticity and squeezing orientation, we identify a means to probe the driving field's quantum properties that intrinsically lie in the high-photon-number regime.

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Phys. Rev. A 114, 013127– Published 30 July, 2026
  • Received 14 January 2026
  • Accepted 9 July 2026
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