Abstract:
High harmonic generation (HHG) and attosecond pulses driven by relativistically intense lasers interacting with solid-density plasma mirrors constitute a vital pathway for realizing high-brightness, short-wavelength, ultrafast coherent light sources and exploring extreme strong-field physics. In recent years, benefiting from the rapid development of laser technology, the precise control over light field degrees of freedom, such as amplitude, phase, and polarization, has spurred the emergence of structured light fields. Structured light fields significantly enrich the methods for controlling laser-matter interaction and broaden its scope of applications. This article aims to review the latest progress in controlling relativistic laser-plasma HHG and attosecond pulses using structured light fields. The work specifically discusses methods for characteristic control and the physical mechanisms of HHG driven by novel structured light fields, including polarization structures (e.g., circularly polarized light, vector beams), phase structures (e.g., spatial vortex beams, spatiotemporal vortex beams), and amplitude structures (e.g., Bessel beams, Airy beams), with the goal of providing new perspectives for research on novel light sources based on strong-field laser-plasma interactions.