High-Order-Harmonic Generation from a Relativistic Circularly Polarized Laser Interacting with Over-Dense Plasma Grating

The simple surface current model is extended to study the generation of high-order harmonics for a relativistic circularly polarized laser pulse interacting with a plasma grating surface. Both exact relativistic electron dynamics and optical interference of surface periodic structure are considered. It is found that high order harmonics in the specular direction are obviously suppressed whereas the harmonics of the grating periodicity are strongly enhanced and folded into small solid angles with respect to the surface direction. The conversion efficiency of certain harmonics is five orders of magnitude higher than that of the planar target cases. It provides an effective approach to generate a coherent radiation within the so-called ‘water window' while maintaining high conversion efficiency and narrow angle spread.