Selective zoning of high harmonic emission using counter-propagating light

High harmonic production can be dramatically increased by utilizing an interaction region much longer than a coherence length. Counter-propagating light pulses can be used to disrupt the out-of-phase harmonic emission from selected zones in the focus so that the remaining emission builds constructively. Counter-propagating light creates a standing field modulation repeating over a half laser wavelength in which phase cancellations for harmonic emission occur. A simple power-law model is used to demonstrate how such pulses can be designed to counteract geometrical phase mismatches and improve emission for individual harmonics by more than two orders of magnitude.