Density-gradient effect in high-harmonic generation in gases
Abstract
High-harmonic generation (HHG) in gaseous targets is the most widespread method to produce coherent extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulses with sub-femtosecond duration. However, this process has intrinsically low efficiency, and substantial research and development is devoted worldwide to increase the achievable photon flux through this highly nonlinear light--matter interaction process. In this work, we show the strong interplay of phase matching and absorption in gas-pressure gradients, substantially affecting macroscopic HHG efficiency. Through detailed experimental analysis and supporting numerical studies, we highlight their significance, particularly at the boundaries of the interaction volume. The concluded results have implications in the massively expanding application possibilities of HHG sources requiring high photon flux, for example in the semiconductor industry, in nanoscale imaging of biological and industrial samples, or in nonlinear optics in the XUV regime.
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BibTeX
@misc{filus2026densitygradient,
title = {{Density-gradient effect in high-harmonic generation in gases}},
author = {Zoltán Filus and Tímea Grósz and Chinmoy Biswas and Lénárd Gulyás Oldal and Tamás Bartyik and Barnabás Gilicze and Subhendu Kahaly and Katalin Varjú and Balázs Major},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.28032},
eprint = {2608.28032},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28032},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Density-gradient effect in high-harmonic generation in gases
AU - Zoltán Filus
AU - Tímea Grósz
AU - Chinmoy Biswas
AU - Lénárd Gulyás Oldal
AU - Tamás Bartyik
AU - Barnabás Gilicze
AU - Subhendu Kahaly
AU - Katalin Varjú
AU - Balázs Major
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.28032
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28032
AB - High-harmonic generation (HHG) in gaseous targets is the most widespread method to produce coherent extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulses with sub-femtosecond duration. However, this process has intrinsically low efficiency, and substantial research and development is devoted worldwide to increase the achievable photon flux through this highly nonlinear light--matter interaction process. In this work, we show the strong interplay of phase matching and absorption in gas-pressure gradients, substantially affecting macroscopic HHG efficiency. Through detailed experimental analysis and supporting numerical studies, we highlight their significance, particularly at the boundaries of the interaction volume. The concluded results have implications in the massively expanding application possibilities of HHG sources requiring high photon flux, for example in the semiconductor industry, in nanoscale imaging of biological and industrial samples, or in nonlinear optics in the XUV regime.
ER -