The generation of high-order harmonics in diatomic molecules is investigated
within the framework of the strong-field approximation. We show that the
conventional saddle-point approximation is not suitable for large internuclear
distances. An adapted saddle-point method that takes into account the molecular
structure is presented. We analyze the predictions for the harmonic-generation
spectra in both the velocity and the length gauge. At large internuclear
separations, we compare the resulting cutoffs with the predictions of the
simple-man's model. Good agreement is obtained only by using the adapted
saddle-point method combined with the velocity gauge.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure