Ionization Mechanism of the Generation of Tunable Ultrashort Pulses in the Mid-Infrared Range

The generation of pulses in the mid-infrared range during the ionization of a gas by an intense two-color femtosecond field containing quasimonochromatic components with the frequency ratio close to 2 has been studied. The generation occurs at the detuning frequency equal to the difference between the higher frequency and the doubled lower frequency. It has been shown that the efficiency of the generation is determined both by the magnitude of the detuning frequency and by its sign and is higher at negative detunings. The duration of the generated pulse is determined by the ionization duration, which is much smaller than the duration of the ionizing field, which ensures obtaining few-cycle and subcycle pulses in the mid-infrared range.