High-ellipticity resonant below-threshold harmonic generation by a helium atom driven by a moderately intense elliptically polarized laser field

Abstract: The below-threshold harmonic generation in the multiphoton ionization regime for a helium atom driven by the elliptically polarized laser field is studied numerically within the framework of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) models. It is shown that, regardless of the specific type of atomic potential and the model dimensionality, there is a set of laser frequencies, at which the harmonic generation efficiency increases dramatically with a simultaneous increase of their ellipticity. In these cases, the harmonic ellipticity can exceed the laser ellipticity by 2 or more times in absolute value. It is shown that the efficiency of harmonic generation in this interaction regime depends weakly or almost does not depend on the laser ellipticity. The pathways leading to resonant emission of intense harmonics with increased ellipticities are identified. The enhancement of the ellipticity of these harmonics is explained in terms of relative probabilities of resonant transitions in an elliptically polarized laser field for different values of the magnetic quantum number.