Journal article
Efficiency-optimized relativistic plasma harmonics for extreme fields
- Abstract:
- Bright high harmonic radiation from relativistically oscillating laser-plasmas offers a direct route to generating extreme electromagnetic fields. Theory shows that under optimised conditions the plasma medium can support strong spatiotemporal compression of laser energy into a Coherent Harmonic Focus (CHF), delivering intensity boosts many orders of magnitude above that of the incident driving laser pulse [1–4]. Although diffraction-limited performance [5] (spatial compression) and attosecond phase-locking [6] (temporal compression) have been demonstrated in the laboratory, efficient coupling of highly relativistic laser pulse energy into the emitted harmonic cone has not been realised to date. Here, conclusive evidence confirms that the relativistic laserplasma interaction can be tailored to deliver the maximum conversion efficiencies predicted from simulations. By fine-tuning the temporal profile of the driving laser pulse on femtosecond (fs, 10−15 s) timescales, energies > 9 mJ between the 12th and 47th harmonics (18 eV to 73 eV) are observed. These results are shown to be in excellent agreement with the theoretically expected efficiency dependence on harmonic order, indicating that optimal conditions have been achieved in the generation process. This is the important final element required to achieve the expected intensity boosts from a CHF in the laboratory. Although obtaining spatiotemporal compression and optimal efficiency simultaneously remains challenging, the path to realising extreme optical field strengths approaching the critical field of quantum electrodynamics (the Schwinger limit at > 1016V/m or > 1029 W cm−2 ) is now open, permitting all-optical studies of the quantum vacuum and drawing new horizons for intense attosecond science.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 4.2MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/s41586-026-10400-2
Authors
+ Science and Technology Facilities Council
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- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/057g20z61
- Grant:
- ST/V001655/1
- ST/X005518/1
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- Nature More from this journal
- Volume:
- 652
- Issue:
- 8112
- Pages:
- 1153–1158
- Publication date:
- 2026-04-22
- Acceptance date:
- 2025-09-26
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1476-4687
- ISSN:
-
0028-0836
- Language:
-
English
- Pubs id:
-
2295951
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2295951
- Deposit date:
-
2025-10-02
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Timmis et al
- Copyright date:
- 2026
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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