Interplay of polarization geometry and rotational dynamics in high-order harmonic generation from coherently rotating linear molecules.

Recent reports on intense-field pump-probe experiments for high-order harmonic generation (HHG) from coherently rotating linear molecules have revealed remarkable characteristic effects of the simultaneous variation of the polarization geometry and the time delay on the high-order harmonic signals. We analyze the effects and give a unified theoretical account of the experimental observations. Furthermore, characteristic behavior at critical polarization angles are found that can help to identify the molecular orbital symmetry in connection with the problem of molecular imaging from the HHG data.