Eur. Phys. J. D 21, 115-119 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2002-00174-3

Ellipticity dependence of atomic and molecular high harmonic generation

¹ Physikalisches Institut, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
² Max-Planck Institut für Strömungsforschung, Bunsenstr. 10, 37073 Göttingen, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a gerber@physik.uni-wuerzburg.de

Received: 24 April 2002
Published online: 24 September 2002

Abstract

High harmonic generation is compared in the dependence on the ellipticity of the fundamental laser radiation for an atomic and a molecular system. In particular argon and nitrogen are compared employing molecular beams and intense ( W/cm²) and ultrashort (80 fs) 800 nm laser pulses. It turns out that for all the harmonics under investigation (H5, H13 and H21) the harmonic yield decreases slower with the ellipticity for the molecule than for the atom. This indicates differences in atomic and molecular high harmonic generation.