Crown-structured optical harmonics

Abstract

At levels of laser intensity below threshold for multiphoton ionization, the parametric generation of optical harmonics in gases and other isotropic media is subject to selection rules with origins in angular momentum conservation. The recently developed optics of vector polarization modes provides an unprecedented opportunity to exploit these principles in the production of high harmonic beams with distinctive forms of transverse intensity profile, comprising discrete sub-wavelength filaments in crown-like arrays. A detailed analysis of the fundamental electrodynamics elicits the mechanism, and delivers results illustrating the transverse structures and spatial dimensions of harmonic output that can be achieved.