Our latest research explores the role of substrates in solid-state high harmonic generation (sHHG) spectroscopy, an ultrafast technique that reveals critical insights into material properties like electronic structure. While many studies on two-dimensional and quantum materials assume all sHHG signals come solely from the sample, our findings indicate that some substrates, including fused silica, calcium fluoride, diamond, and sapphire, contribute sHHG emissions under certain conditions. By examining power-dependent and angle-resolved sHHG emissions, we provide guidelines for substrate selection to enhance the accuracy of sHHG studies on novel materials. This work broadens the potential for sHHG in advanced material analysis.

Special congratulations to first-author Ezra for his first paper as undergraduate researcher and to all group members involved.

This work was published open access in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A as part of the Richard J. Saykally Festschrift:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpca.4c04991