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  • Open Access

Anomalous effects in single-slit diffraction of light at relativistic intensities

Longqing Yi*

  • State Key Laboratory of Dark Matter Physics, Key Laboratory for Laser Plasma (Ministry of Education), Tsung-Dao Lee Institute & School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 201210, China and Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

  • *Contact author: lqyi@sjtu.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 043163 – Published 12 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/f4yl-r4qd

Abstract

High-order harmonic generation via single-slit diffraction of relativistic laser pulses is investigated. Using fully kinetic two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell simulations, we show that interesting optical phenomena emerge, including the generation of harmonic beams that are anomalously polarized orthongal to the driver, harmonic spectrum variation depending on the incident laser polarization, and a deflection of transmitted lights that leads to a tilted harmonic intensity pattern due to total angular momentum conservation. It is shown that these anomalous effects are associated with complex peripheral electron dynamics on the plasma vacuum interface. To account for these effects, a new theoretical model is developed that can calculate harmonic fields from arbitrary 2D electron motion within the diffraction plane based on the “relativistic oscillating window” mechanism; the results agree well with the simulations. Our model indicates that the optical properties of the harmonic beams are determined by the 2D in-plane electron motion, which can be leveraged to provide immense opportunities for manipulating light-matter interaction at relativistic intensities.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 043163– Published 12 November, 2025
  • Received 6 May 2025
  • Accepted 21 October 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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