Quasi‐single‐cycle near‐infrared light pulses with a measured spectrum extending from 7 to 15 &mgr;m have been generated, opening up new perspectives in IR spectroscopy. The method is based on the rectification of 0.8 &mgr;m 10–15 fs light pulses from a 100 MHz oscillator, using the instantaneous second‐order polarizability of bulk semiconductors such as GaAs. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.