Theoretical investigation of high-order harmonic generation from asymmetric molecular ions in the chirped laser field

High-order harmonic generation from the asymmetric helium hydrogen molecular ion exposed to a few-cycle chirped laser field is theoretically investigated by numerically solving the reduced one-dimension non-Born–Oppenheimer time dependent Schrödinger equation. The numerical results show that the plateau of the high-order harmonic spectrum is dramatically broadened and smoother with the introduction of the chirp. Further study presents that only the short quantum path contributes to harmonic emission and the long quantum path disappears in the chirped laser. In addition, an 80-as isolated attosecond pulse is obtained by superposing the harmonics from the 100th to the 130th order in the chirped field. The time-frequency distributions and the electronic probability distributions are presented to explain the underlying physical mechanism.