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In this paper, we theoretically investigate high-order harmonic generation (HHG) from a helium atom prepared in a coherent superposition state in a two-color laser field. Numerical results show that the emission efficiency of the harmonic spectrum in a coherent superposition state is enhanced by approximately eight orders of magnitude compared with the case of the ground state. In addition, the effect of the initial population of the excited state on the HHG is presented to reveal the physical origin of the enhancement of HHG. By adjusting the laser parameters of the driving pulse, such as the chirping parameter, the relative phase, and the intensity of the driving pulse, an ultrabroad continuum with a width of 275 eV can be observed. Finally, an isolated 12-as pulse is generated after phase compensation.

We propose a method to extend the high-order harmonics plateau and generate an isolated sub-10-as pulse by adding a weak control pulse (10 fs, 1600 nm) to modify a two-color laser field (5 fs, 800 nm; 10 fs, 400 nm). The numerical results show that the plateau is extended obviously in the three-color laser field regime. Additionally, the ionization rate and classical returning kinetic-energy maps are calculated to better understand the physical origin of the high-order harmonics generation (HHG). By means of the ionization probability and the time-frequency distributions, more features of the HHG are revealed. Furthermore, our simulations show that the width of the plateau and the relative conversion efficiency of the harmonic spectra are highly dependent on the relative phase. Finally, by adjusting the relative phase and superposing a properly selected range of the HHG spectrum, an isolated attosecond pulse with a duration of 7 as is obtained.

An efficient method to enhance the harmonic efficiency and generate an isolated attosecond pulse is proposed by preparing the initial state as a coherent superposition of the ground state and a Rydberg state in a two-color laser field. By numerically solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation, we found that for the superposition state with the optimal Rydberg state, not only is the harmonic efficiency enhanced significantly, but also the width of the continuous spectrum is extended. The ionization probability and the time-frequency distribution of the harmonic spectrum are also calculated to understand the physical origin of the enhancement of the harmonic spectrum. In addition, by adjusting the parameter of the laser pulse, a supercontinuum with both higher conversion efficiency and slighter modulation can be observed. As a result, an isolated 7-as pulse with a bandwidth of 495 eV can be obtained after phase compensation.