Generation of circularly polarized extreme-ultraviolet harmonics from solids

Circularly polarized sources of radiation play a vital role in photoelectron circular dichroism and magnetic circular dichroism experiments. While circularly polarized radiation can be routinely generated in the visible domain of the electromagnetic spectrum due to the availability of laser sources and optics in this range, generation of circularly polarized radiation in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) domain is challenging and, using table-top sources it is currently limited to high harmonic generation from gases using bi-circular, complicated two-source and/or interferometry arrangement. In this work, being fueled by recent development of high harmonic generation and spectroscopy of solids, we demonstrate the generation of circularly polarized extreme ultraviolet light using interaction of intense circularly polarized drivers. The simplicity of our experimental setup enables rapid application of circularly polarized XUV light in circular dichroism experiments.