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High-order optical processes: towards nonperturbative nonlinear optics

We develop an approach describing nonlinear-optical processes in the strong-field domain characterized by the nonperturbative field-with-matter interaction. The polarization of an isolated atom in the external field calculated via the numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation agrees with our analytical findings. For the practically important case of one strong laser field and several weaker fields we derive and analytically solve propagation equations describing high-order (HO) wave-mixing, HO parametric amplification and HO stimulated scattering. These processes provide a way of efficient coherent XUV generation. Some properties of HO processes are new in nonlinear optics: essentially complex values of the coefficients in the propagation equations, the super-exponential (hyperbolic) growing solutions, etc. Finally, we suggest conditions for the practical realization of these processes and discuss published numerical and experimental results where such processes could have been observed.