Electron wavepacket control with elliptically polarized laser light in high harmonic generation from aligned molecules

Abstract : We study experimentally and theoretically the high harmonic emission from aligned samples of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, in an elliptically polarized laser field. The ellipticity induces a lateral shift of the recombining electron wavepacket in the generation process. We show that this effect, which is well known from high harmonic generation (HHG) in atoms, can be useful to maintain the plane wave approximation in the case of HHG from molecules whose orbitals contain nodal planes. The study of the harmonic signal as a function of molecular alignment also reveals the role of the ellipticity on the recollision angle of the electron wavepacket, which can be used to accurately track the position of resonances in harmonic spectra.