Dramatic Enhancement of High-Order Harmonic Generation

Abstract

We present a dramatic enhancement [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 043002 (2003)] of high-order harmonic generation by simultaneous irradiation of booster harmonics. A key feature of our experiment is the use of mixed gases (Xe and He) with different ionization energies. The harmonics from Xe atoms act as a booster to increase the harmonic yield from He by a factor of $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{3}$. The dominance of the dramatic enhancement effect is supported by simulation with the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation as well as the observed spatial characteristic of the generated harmonics and dependence on medium conditions.