High-order harmonic generation from a solid-surface plasma by relativistic-intensity sub-100-fs mid-infrared pulses

High-order harmonic generation (HHG) in plasmas induced by ultrashort, relativistic-intensity laser pulses on solid surfaces can provide an efficient source of attosecond pulses and opens routes toward new regimes of laser-matter interactions, x-ray generation, laser particle acceleration, and relativistic nonlinear optics. However, field intensities in the range of I-rel similar to 10(19) W/cm(2) are typically needed to achieve the relativistic regime of HHG in experiments with near-infrared laser pulses. Here, we show that, in the mid-infrared range, due to the lambda(-2) scaling of I-rel with the driver wavelength lambda, relativistic HHG can be observed at much lower levels of laser field intensities. High-peak-power 80-fs, 3.9-Ism pulses are focused in our experiments on a solid surface to provide field intensities in the range of 10(17) W/cm(2). Remarkably, this level of field intensities, considered as low by the standards of relativistic optics in the near infrared, is shown to be sufficient for generation of high-order harmonics with signature properties of relativistic HHG-beam directionality, spectra with extended plateaus, and a high HHG yield sustained for both p- and s-polarized driver fields. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America