Generation of extreme ultraviolet continuum radiation driven by a sub-10-fs two-color field

We have proposed and demonstrated a novel approach for generating high-energy extreme-ultraviolet ( XUV) continuum radiation. When a two-color laser field consisting of a sub-10-fs fundamental and its parallel-polarized second harmonic was applied to high-order harmonic generation in argon, a continuum spectrum centered at 30 nm was successfully obtained with an energy as high as 10 nJ. This broadband emission indicates the possibility of generating intense single attosecond pulses in the XUV region. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.