Extreme-ultraviolet frequency combs from high-order harmonic generation with few-cycle pulse trains

Abstract

The spectrum of a high-repetition train of laser pulses consists of many equally spaced lines, forming an optical frequency comb which is useful for high-precision spectroscopy. By exposing atoms to a train of strong pulses, frequency combs reaching into the extreme ultraviolet may be produced via high-order harmonic generation. Here, we report a theoretical study of extreme-ultraviolet frequency-comb generation by trains of few-cycle pulses. We analyze the nontrivial comb structure arising from overlapping harmonic orders. The spacings of the comb lines and their dependence on the offset frequency of the incident pulse train are discussed.