Frequency-selected enhancement of high-order-harmonic generation by interference of degenerate Rydberg states in a few-cycle laser pulse

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We demonstrate that the frequency-selected enhancement of high-order-harmonic generation (HHG) can be achieved by a few-cycle laser pulse interacting with a coherent superposition state, which is prepared by the ground state and two degenerate Rydberg states. The degenerate states have the same orbital radius and hence have a large overlap in the electronic density distribution. By controlling the relative phase between the two degenerate states, the constructive or destructive interference of them can markedly change the initial density distribution of the Rydberg electron, thereby we can manipulate the characteristics and the conversion efficiency of HHG. Specifically, a significant enhancement in the continuous harmonics near HHG cutoff can be obtained, hence an intense isolated pulse with a duration less than 100 attoseconds is straightforwardly generated. On the other hand, since there exists a specific dependence of the harmonic efficiency on the relative phase of the two degenerate states, one can expect that the relative phase may be probed by examining the corresponding harmonic intensity. In practice, we may apply a weak static electric field in the whole dynamic process to obtain an asymmetry electron density distribution at a large radius; hence similar HHG results can be obtained.