Influence of C60 morphology on high-order harmonic generation enhancement in fullerene-containing plasma

The morphologies of the fullerene targets and the ablated fullerenes to determine the optimal conditions of excitation of the C-60-containing targets have been analyzed. The optimization of fullerene-containing plasma conditions allowed the enhanced harmonic generation in these plasmas using laser radiation of different wavelengths, pulse durations, and phase modulation. A comparison between the harmonic generation in single-atom/ion-containing plasmas (using bulk carbon, silver, and indium targets) and fullerene-rich plasma plumes showed better conversion efficiency for the latter medium. The influence of phase modulation of the fundamental radiation in fullerene plasmas on the spectral properties of harmonics has been studied. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3259369]