The advent of ultrahigh-power femtosecond lasers creates a need for an entirely new class of optical components based on plasmas. The most promising of these are known as plasma mirrors, formed when an intense femtosecond laser ionizes a solid surface. These mirrors specularly reflect the main part of a laser pulse and can be used as active optical elements to manipulate its temporal and spatial properties. Unfortunately, the considerable pressures exerted by the laser can deform the mirror surface, unfavourably affecting the reflected beam and complicating, or even preventing, the use of plasma mirrors at ultrahigh intensities. Here we derive a simple analytical model of the basic physics involved in laser-induced deformation of a plasma mirror. We validate this model numerically and experimentally, and use it to show how such deformation might be mitigated by appropriate control of the laser phase.

High-order harmonics and attosecond pulses of light can be generated when ultraintense, ultrashort laser pulses reflect off a solid-density plasma with a sharp vacuum interface, i.e., a plasma mirror. We demonstrate experimentally the key influence of the steepness of the plasma-vacuum interface on the interaction, by measuring the spectral and spatial properties of harmonics generated on a plasma mirror whose initial density gradient scale length L is continuously varied. Time-resolved interferometry is used to separately measure this scale length.

International audienceThe nonlinear interaction of an intense femtosecond laser pulse with matter can lead to the emission of a train of sub-laser-cycle--attosecond--bursts of short-wavelength radiation1, 2. Much effort has been devoted to producing isolated attosecond pulses, as these are better suited to real-time imaging of fundamental electronic processes3, 4, 5, 6. Successful methods developed so far rely on confining the nonlinear interaction to a single sub-cycle event7, 8, 9. Here, we demonstrate for the first time a simpler and more universal approach to this problem10, applied to nonlinear laser-plasma interactions. By rotating the instantaneous wavefront direction of an intense few-cycle laser field11, 12 as it interacts with a solid-density plasma, we separate the nonlinearly generated attosecond pulse train into multiple beams of isolated attosecond pulses propagating in different and controlled directions away from the plasma surface. This unique method produces a manifold of isolated attosecond pulses, ideally synchronized for initiating and probing ultrafast electron motion in matter

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A general approach for optically controlled spatial structuring of overdense plasmas generated at the surface of initially plain solid targets is presented. We demonstrate it experimentally by creating sinusoidal plasma gratings of adjustable spatial periodicity and depth, and study the interaction of these transient structures with an ultraintense laser pulse to establish their usability at relativistically high intensities. We then show how these gratings can be used as a "spatial ruler" to determine the source size of the high-order harmonic beams produced at the surface of an overdense plasma. These results open new directions both for the metrology of laser-plasma interactions and the emerging field of ultrahigh intensity plasmonics.

This paper provides an overview of ultrafast wavefront rotation of femtosecond laser pulses and its various applications in highly nonlinear optics, focusing on processes that lead to the generation of high-order harmonics and attosecond pulses. In this context, wavefront rotation can be exploited in different ways, to obtain new light sources for time-resolved studies, called 'attosecond lighthouses', to perform time-resolved measurements of nonlinear optical processes, using 'photonic streaking', or to track changes in the carrier-envelope relative phase of femtosecond laser pulses. The basic principles are explained qualitatively from different points of view, the experimental evidence obtained so far is summarized, and the perspectives opened by these effects are discussed.

International audienceThe extreme intensities now delivered by femtosecond lasers make it possible to drive and control relativistic motion of charged particles with light1, opening a path to compact particle accelerators2, 3 and coherent X-ray sources4, 5. Accurately characterizing the dynamics of ultrahigh-intensity laser–plasma interactions as well as the resulting light and particle emissions is an essential step towards such achievements. This remains a considerable challenge, as the relevant scales typically range from picoseconds to attoseconds in time, and from micrometres to nanometres in space. In these experiments, owing to the extreme prevalent physical conditions, measurements can be performed only at macroscopic distances from the targets, yielding only partial information at these microscopic scales. This letter presents a major advance by applying the concepts of ptychography6, 7 to such measurements, and thus retrieving microscopic information hardly accessible until now. This paves the way to a general approach for the metrology of extreme laser–plasma interactions on very small spatial and temporal scale

International audienceWe address the on target focal spot spatio-temporal features of an ultrashort, 100 TW class laser chain by using spectrally resolved imaging diagnostics. The observed spatio-spectral images, which we call rotating imaging spectrographs, are obtained single shot to reveal the essential information about the spatio-temporal couplings. We observe nontrivial effects in the focal plane due to compressor defects which significantly affect the maximum on target intensity. This diagnostic might become an essential tool for improving compressor alignment in many upcoming multi-petawatt short pulse laser facilities