In situ ptychographic measurements of high-order harmonic sources from plasma mirrors: A theoretical and numerical study

A. Leblanc (1) , F. Quéré (1)

1 LIDyl - Laboratoire Interactions, Dynamiques et Lasers (ex SPAM)

Measuring the spatial properties of high-order harmonic beams produced by high-intensity laser-matter interactions directly in the target plane is very challenging due to the extreme physical conditions at stake in the interaction area. A measurement scheme has been recently developed to obtain this information experimentally, which consists in adapting a lensless imaging method known as ptychography. In this paper, we present a theoretical validation of this method in the case of harmonic generation from plasma mirrors, using a combination of simple modeling and 2D Particle-In-Cell simulations. This study investigates the concept of in situ ptychography and supports the analysis of experimental measurements presented in previous publications.

Domains: Theoretical and/or physical chemistry; Mechanics of materials [physics.class-ph]; Chemical Physics [physics.chem-ph]

A. Leblanc, F. Quéré. In situ ptychographic measurements of high-order harmonic sources from plasma mirrors: A theoretical and numerical study. Physics of Plasmas, 2018, 25 (1), pp.013112. ⟨10.1063/1.5002523⟩. ⟨cea-02277465⟩