Attosecond pulse production using resonantly-enhanced high-order harmonics

Abstract

We study theoretically the effect of the giant resonance in Xe on the phase difference between the consecutive high order resonantly-enhanced harmonics and calculate the duration of the attosecond pulses produced by these harmonics. For certain conditions resonantly-induced dephasing compensates the phase difference which is intrinsic for the off-resonance harmonics. We find these conditions analytically and compare them with the numerical results. This harmonic synchronization allows attosecond pulse shortening in conjunction with the resonance-induced intensity increase by more than an order of magnitude; the latter enhancement relaxes the requirements for the UV filtering needed for the attosecond pulse production. Using a two-color driving field allows further increase of the intensity. In particular, a caustic-like feature in the harmonic spectrum leads to the generation efficiency growth up to two orders of magnitude, however accompanied by an elongation of the XUV pulse.