Hyper-Raman lines emission concomitant with high-order harmonic generation

Abstract

Abstract Hyper-Raman lines (HRL) resulting from strong-field light–matter interaction have been predicted theoretically in the 1990s but never identified in high-order harmonic generation experiments. Here, we use a combination of 800 and 400 nm laser pulses to control independently the two processes required for the hyper-Raman emission: creation of a coherence between two electronic states and laser-dressing of these states. As a result we observe simultaneously high-order harmonics, XUV free induction decay and HRL. We investigate experimentally and numerically the properties of this novel emission source. It can be of high interest, amongst others, for high-resolution spatio-temporal spectroscopy of excited electronic states in the same fashion high-order harmonics generation provides it for ground state.