Nano-engineering of Strong Field Processes in Solids

Abstract

We investigate ionization and high harmonic generation (HHG) from the interaction of a mid infra-red laser pulse with a solid state system confined to nano-dimensions. The theory of strong field processes in solids is developed for confined quantum systems in general. Here it is applied to two-dimensional quantum wires with a driving field linearly polarised along the axis of the wires. Our findings indicate that that we are able to control the ionization and high-harmonic output by altering the width of the wire. Control of ionization leads to an increased damage threshold which has important implications for nano-engineering and realizing all solid state coherent XUV sources.