  The availability of few-cycle optical pulses opens a window to physical
phenomena occurring on the attosecond time scale. In order to take full
advantage of such pulses, it is crucial to measure and stabilise their
carrier-envelope (CE) phase, i.e., the phase difference between the carrier
wave and the envelope function. We introduce a novel approach to determine the
CE phase by down-conversion of the laser light to the terahertz (THz) frequency
range via plasma generation in ambient air, an isotropic medium where optical
rectification (down-conversion) in the forward direction is only possible if
the inversion symmetry is broken by electrical or optical means. We show that
few-cycle pulses directly produce a spatial charge asymmetry in the plasma. The
asymmetry, associated with THz emission, depends on the CE phase, which allows
for a determination of the phase by measurement of the amplitude and polarity
of the THz pulse.
