  We present experimental results showing the appearance of a near-continuum in
the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) spectra of atomic and molecular
species as the driving laser intensity of an infrared pulse increases. Detailed
macroscopic simulations reveal that these near-continuum spectra are capable of
producing IAPs in the far field if a proper spatial filter is applied. Further,
our simulations show that the near-continuum spectra and the IAPs are a product
of strong temporal and spatial reshaping (blue shift and defocusing) of the
driving field. This offers a possibility of producing IAPs with a broad range
of photon energy, including plateau harmonics, by mid-IR laser pulses even
without carrier-envelope phase stabilization.
