  We present the first theoretical investigation of carrier-wave Rabi flopping
in real atoms by employing numerical simulations of high-order harmonic
generation (HHG) in alkali species. Given the short HHG cutoff, related to the
low saturation intensity, we concentrate on the features of the third harmonic
of sodium (Na) and potassium (K) atoms. For pulse areas of 2$\pi$ and Na atoms,
a characteristic unique peak appears, which, after analyzing the ground state
population, we correlate with the conventional Rabi flopping. On the other
hand, for larger pulse areas, carrier-wave Rabi flopping occurs, and is
associated with a more complex structure in the third harmonic. These new
characteristics observed in K atoms indicate the breakdown of the area theorem,
as was already demonstrated under similar circumstances in narrow band gap
semiconductors.
