Generation of Coherent XUV Radiation in N2 molecule and its Mixture with Ne Gas using Sub-terawatt Laser System

High harmonic generation (HHG) in pure nitrogen (N2) and its mixture with neon (Ne) gas was produced. The external laser field producing 6mJ optical pulse energy with 50fs pulse duration at 10Hz repetition rate was focused into a gas jet producing high harmonics. The N2 and Ne gas have different ionization potentials. The strong harmonic signal in pure N2 was produced, and a weak harmonic signal in a mixture of N2-Ne was generated compared to that in pure N2. The increase of Ne contribution in the N2-Ne mixture resulted in a decrease in harmonic signal. Harmonic signal increase and decrease were observed for different N2:Ne ratios. The harmonic generation mechanism was discussed in that the ionization of Ne is difficult compared to N2, and the neutral Ne atom leads to neutral atomic dispersion (phase mismatch), so the harmonic yield decreases.