Tomographic Reconstruction of Circularly Polarized High Harmonic Fields: 3D Attosecond Metrology

Bright, circularly polarized, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray high harmonic beams can now be produced using counter-rotating circularly polarized driving laser fields. In the time domain, the field is predicted to emerge as a complex series of rotating linearly polarized bursts, varying rapidly in amplitude, frequency and polarization. Here, we extend attosecond metrology techniques to circularly polarized light for the first time by simultaneously irradiating a copper surface with circularly polarized high harmonic and linearly polarized infrared laser fields. The resulting temporal modulation of the photoelectron spectra carries essential phase information about the EUV field. Utilizing the polarization selectivity of the solid surface and by rotating the circularly polarized EUV field in space, we fully retrieve the amplitude and phase of the circularly polarized harmonics, allowing us to reconstruct one of the most complex coherent light fields produced to date.