Comprehensive analyses based on rigorous vector diffraction theory have been presented to simulate the readout signal contrast using SIL in reading phase change recording disk. De-polarized reflected light (y-polarized from x-polarized incident beam) results in the reduction of total signal contrast, and becomes more obvious for high numerical aperture (NA) systems. Due to the signal degradatio...

Bright, circularly polarized, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft x-ray high-harmonic beams can now be produced using counter-rotating circularly polarized driving laser fields. Although the resulting circularly polarized harmonics consist of relatively simple pairs of peaks in the spectral domain, in the time domain, the field is predicted to emerge as a complex series of rotating linearly pola...