This review presents the current state of research on the generation and use of subfemtosecond(or attosecond, 1 as =10¹⁸s) ultraviolet and X-ray pulses. Emission of attosecond pulses is closely related to the generation of high-order harmonics of the laser field: the interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with matter causes the generation of high-order harmonics, whose highest orders range from dozens to thousands and which produce attosecond pulses when they are phase-locked in a sufficiently broad spectral region. As two ways of attosecond pulse generation, the interaction of an intense laser field with a gaseous medium and with the edge of a solid state plasma is discussed. The theory of the microscopic high-frequency response of a gaseous medium to an intense low-frequency laser field is presented together with numerical results based on the solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for an atom in the external field. The review describes the methodology for calculating the macroscopic response and analyzes the phase-matching in high-order harmonic generation. For the generation of the coherent XUV radiation at the edge of a dense plasma, different generation scenarios are discussed, a simple model is proposed, and a comparison of model predictions with numerical results from particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations is given.

Keywords: attosecond pulses, high-order harmonic generation, interaction of intense laser fields with matter, phase matching, time-dependent Schrцdinger equation, dense laser plasma, particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations PACS: 42.65.Ky, 42.65.Re, 52.38.−r (all) DOI: 10.3367/UFNe.2015.12.037670 URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2016/5/a/ 000381177800001 2-s2.0-84981313324 2016PhyU...59..425S Citation: Strelkov V V, Platonenko V T, Sterzhantov A F, Ryabikin M Yu "Attosecond electromagnetic pulses: generation, measurement, and application. Generation of high-order harmonics of intense laser field for attosecond pulse production" Phys. Usp. 59 425–445 (2016) BibTexBibNote ® (generic)BibNote ® (RIS)MedlineRefWorks @article{Strelkov:2016, author = {V. V. Strelkov and V. T. Platonenko and A. F. Sterzhantov and M. Yu. Ryabikin}, title = {Attosecond electromagnetic pulses: generation, measurement, and application. Generation of high-order harmonics of intense laser field for attosecond pulse production}, publisher = {Physics-Uspekhi}, year = {2016}, journal = {Phys. Usp.}, volume = {59}, number = {5}, pages = {425-445}, url = {https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2016/5/a/}, doi = {10.3367/UFNe.2015.12.037670} } Received: 7th, September 2015, revised: 1st, December 2015, accepted: 23rd, December 2015 Оригинал: Стрелков В В, Платоненко В Т, Стержантов А Ф, Рябикин М Ю «Аттосекундные электромагнитные импульсы: генерация, измерение и применение. Генерация высоких гармоник интенсивного лазерного излучения для получения аттосекундных импульсов» УФН 186 449–470 (2016); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.2015.12.037670