TY - JOUR KW - attosecond pulses KW - high-harmonic generation AU - Kevin Dorney AU - Laura Rego AU - Nathan Brooks AU - Julio San Román AU - Chen-Ting Liao AU - Jennifer Ellis AU - Dmitriy Zusin AU - Christian Gentry AU - Quynh Nguyen AU - Justin Shaw AU - Antonio Picón AU - Luis Plaja AU - Henry Kapteyn AU - Margaret Murnane AU - Carlos Hernández-García AB -

Optical interactions are governed by both spin and angular momentum conservation laws, which serve as a tool for controlling light\textendashmatter interactions or elucidating electron dynamics and structure of complex systems. Here, we uncover a form of simultaneous spin and orbital angular momentum conservation and show, theoretically and experimentally, that this phenomenon allows for unprecedented control over the divergence and polarization of extreme-ultraviolet vortex beams. High harmonics with spin and orbital angular momenta are produced, opening a novel regime of angular momentum conservation that allows for manipulation of the polarization of attosecond pulses\textemdashfrom linear to circular\textemdashand for the generation of circularly polarized vortices with tailored orbital angular momentum, including harmonic vortices with the same topological charge as the driving laser beam. Our work paves the way to ultrafast studies of chiral systems using high-harmonic beams with designer spin and orbital angular momentum.

BT - Nature Photonics DA - 2018-12 DO - 10.1038/s41566-018-0304-3 N2 -

Optical interactions are governed by both spin and angular momentum conservation laws, which serve as a tool for controlling light\textendashmatter interactions or elucidating electron dynamics and structure of complex systems. Here, we uncover a form of simultaneous spin and orbital angular momentum conservation and show, theoretically and experimentally, that this phenomenon allows for unprecedented control over the divergence and polarization of extreme-ultraviolet vortex beams. High harmonics with spin and orbital angular momenta are produced, opening a novel regime of angular momentum conservation that allows for manipulation of the polarization of attosecond pulses\textemdashfrom linear to circular\textemdashand for the generation of circularly polarized vortices with tailored orbital angular momentum, including harmonic vortices with the same topological charge as the driving laser beam. Our work paves the way to ultrafast studies of chiral systems using high-harmonic beams with designer spin and orbital angular momentum.

PY - 2018 SE - 123-130 T2 - Nature Photonics TI - Controlling the polarization and vortex charge of attosecond high-harmonic beams via simultaneous spin-orbit momentum conservation UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-018-0304-3$\#$Abs1 VL - 13 SN - 1749-4885 ER -