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An attosecond pulse train contains repeated short optical pulses. For a group of odd multiples of a common driving frequency, the separation is half the driving period when the relative spectral phases recur. The construction resembles mode locking, but the participating components come from high harmonic generation, rather than separate resonant modes of a laser oscillator.

Choose $N$ equal-amplitude, monochromatic odd components with orders $q_j=q_0+2j$, $j=0,\dots ,N-1$, and odd $q_0$. Fix the complex-field conventionHere $I$ is a normalized light intensity after averaging the fast carrier oscillations. Setting every ${\varphi }_j=0$ and summing a geometric series givesAt the removable singularities take the continuous limit. Maxima repeat every $T/2=\pi /\omega$; the first zeros on either side of a maximum lie at $t=\pm T/(2N)$. The zero-to-zero width is $T/N$, which is not the full width at half maximum.

Choose orders $13,15,17,19,21$ and driving wavelength $\lambda =800\mathrm{nm}$. Using $T=\lambda /c$ with the speed of light $c$ gives $T=2.66851\mathrm{fs}$ and burst spacing $1.33426\mathrm{fs}$. Solving the exact half-maximum equation gives a full width at half maximum of approximately $240.6$ attoseconds. These are values of the specified five-component model, not measurements from the 2001 experiment.

A deliberately chosen spectral phase ${\varphi }_q=q\omega t_0$ translates the whole attosecond pulse train by $t_0$ without changing its shape. Adding $\kappa (q-17{)}^2/2$ makes neighboring phase increments unequal: the same component intensities then produce a different temporal profile. For the choice $t_0=0.20\mathrm{fs}$ and $\kappa =0.08$ radians per squared harmonic order, the adjacent-component delay estimates arenamely $0.0981$, $0.1660$, $0.2340$ and $0.3019\mathrm{fs}$ for $q=13,15,17,19$. This finite difference estimates the group delay at the pair's midpoint. It is not a single common arrival time.

The infinite monochromatic sum is periodic forever and has infinite total energy. A real attosecond pulse train has a finite envelope and finite component linewidths. This calculation isolates coherent addition; it cannot describe an isolated burst or establish its contrast against satellites. As a further check, averaging $I(t)$ over one half-period gives $N|a{|}^2$ for any constant component spectral phases, because the cross terms integrate to zero by Fourier orthogonality. Spectral phase redistributes the light intensity in time while leaving that average fixed.

High harmonic generation converts an intense driving electric field into radiation at high integer multiples of its frequency. High harmonic generation in a gas is a process in nonlinear optics: an Electron can leave a neutral target by tunnel ionization, gain kinetic energy in the driving electric field, and return to radiate upon recombination. This three-step picture is an approximate account of a probability amplitude for emission in quantum mechanics, not a measured path of one Electron.^[ref]

Why odd multiples? In an ideal centrosymmetric gas driven by a single frequency, assume the radiating electric dipole moment satisfies $d(t+T/2)=-d(t)$, where $T$ is the driving period. Its Fourier series coefficient obeys $d_q=-(-1{)}^q{d}_q$, so every even coefficient vanishes. A finite envelope, an oriented target or an additional driving frequency can invalidate that symmetry argument. Producing many odd components also does not prove that their spectral phases form a short optical pulse.

The 1988 report involving Anne L'Huillier observed odd multiples of a $1064\mathrm{nm}$ driving wavelength in rare gases, reaching order 33 in argon. The unexpectedly slow fall of yield beyond the fifth order supplied a broad spectral plateau. A spectral observation alone did not establish the relative spectral phases needed for an attosecond pulse train.^[ref]