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  • Letter
  • Open Access

High-order harmonics from backscattering of delocalized electrons

Chuan Yu, Ulf Saalmann, and Jan M. Rost

  • Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Straße 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany

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Phys. Rev. A 105, L041101 – Published 11 April, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.105.L041101

Abstract

It is shown that electron backscattering can enhance high-order-harmonic generation in periodic systems with broken translational symmetry. Paradigmatically, we derive for a finite chain of atoms the harmonic cutoff due to electrons backscattered from the edges of the chain and demonstrate a maximum in the harmonic yield if twice the quiver amplitude of the driven electrons equals the chain length. For an intuitive understanding of our quantum results we develop a refined semiclassical trajectory model with finite electron-hole separation after tunneling. We demonstrate that the same “tunnel exit” also holds for interband harmonics in conventional periodic solid-state systems.

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References (27)

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  27. For our system the parameters m*=0.167 and k*=0.2 lead to xq=4.62A0/ω0 and Nq=λ/165nm.

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Information

Phys. Rev. A 105, L041101– Published 11 April, 2022
  • Received 26 February 2021
  • Revised 30 April 2021
  • Accepted 14 March 2022
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

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