Interplay between group-delay-dispersion-induced polarization gating and ionization to generate isolated attosecond pulses from multicycle lasers

We implemented a new experimental scheme for the generation of single-shot extreme-UV continua that exploits a combination of transform-limited 15 fs, 800 nm pulses and chirped 35 fs, 800 nm pulses with orthogonal polarizations. Continua are interpreted as the formation of a single attosecond pulse and attributed to the interplay between polarization, ionization gating, and trajectory selection operated by suitable phase-matching conditions. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America