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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Spatial polarization gating of high-harmonic generation in solids

Pieter J. van Essen1,*, Brian de Keijzer1, Tanya van Horen1, Eduardo B. Molinero2, Álvaro Jiménez Galán2,3, Rui. E. F. Silva2,3, and Peter M. Kraus1,4,†

  • *Contact author: p.vessen@arcnl.nl
  • †Contact author: p.kraus@arcnl.nl
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L012063 – Published 11 March, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.L012063

Abstract

High-harmonic generation from solids can be utilized as a probe of ultrafast dynamics, but thus far only over extended sample areas, since its spatial resolution is diffraction limited. Here, we propose spatial polarization gating, that is, using a spatially varying ellipticity of a driving laser pulse to reduce the spatial profile of high-harmonic emission below the diffraction limit and hence increase spatial resolution. We show experimentally and by numerical simulations that our method is generally applicable as suppressing high harmonics in elliptical fields is a common response in all solids. We also briefly explore the possibility of applying this technique to wide-field imaging, specifically to nonlinear structured illumination microscopy. Our findings indicate that spatial polarization gating can enable all-optical femto-to-attosecond label-free imaging beyond the Abbe limit.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L012063– Published 11 March, 2025
  • Received 8 August 2024
  • Accepted 5 February 2025
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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.

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