High-harmonic generation by field enhanced femtosecond pulses in metal-sapphire nanostructure

Plasmonic high-harmonic generation (HHG) drew attention as a means of producing coherent extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation by taking advantage of field enhancement occurring in metallic nanostructures. Here a metal-sapphire nanostructure is devised to provide a solid tip as the HHG emitter, replacing commonly used gaseous atoms. The fabricated solid tip is made of monocrystalline sapphire surrounded by a gold thin-film layer, and intended to produce EUV harmonics by the inter- and intra-band oscillations of electrons driven by the incident laser. The metal-sapphire nanostructure enhances the incident laser field by means of surface plasmon polaritons, triggering HHG directly from moderate femtosecond pulses of ∼0.1 TW cm-2 intensities. The measured EUV spectra exhibit odd-order harmonics up to ∼60 nm wavelengths without the plasma atomic lines typically seen when using gaseous atoms as the HHG emitter. This experimental outcome confirms that the plasmonic HHG approach is a promising way to realize coherent EUV sources for nano-scale near-field applications in spectroscopy, microscopy, lithography and atto-second physics.