Tracking individual electron trajectories in a high harmonic spectrum

The harmonic spectrum generated by a few-cycle laser pulse propagating through a gas jet is calculated. Two complementary atomic response models are used, one based on the time-dependent Schrödinger equation and the other on quantum orbits in which only a single pair of electron trajectories are taken into account. The role played by individual electron trajectories in determining particular features of the spectrum are considered and phase-matching maps are used to help understand their structure. A method based on this connection is proposed for diagnosing the carrier-envelope phase and the pulse duration of the incident laser field.