Double optical gating of high-order harmonic generation with carrier-envelope phase stabilized lasers

Phys Rev Lett. 2008 Mar 14;100(10):103906. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.103906. Epub 2008 Mar 14.

Abstract

We demonstrated a novel optical switch to control the high-order harmonic generation process so that single attosecond pulses can be generated with multiple-cycle pulses. The technique combines two powerful optical gating methods: polarization gating and two-color gating. An extreme ultraviolet supercontinuum supporting 130 as was generated with neon gas using 9 fs laser pulses. We discovered a unique dependence of the harmonic spectra on the carrier-envelope phase of the laser fields, which repeats every 2 pi radians.