Coherence and Saturation in Strong Field Ionization

Brian Kaufman, Philipp Marquetand, Tamás Rozgonyi +1 more

Guiyin Zhang, Mengjun Li, Yidong Jin

Analytic expression of the ionization probability about 3+1 resonance enhanced multi-photon ionization (REMPI) process is deduced with the theory of rate equation, which implies the interaction of photon and material. Based on the expressions, the influence of laser intensity, laser pulse duration and spontaneous radiation lifetime on the ionization probability is analyzed theoretically. It is found that the ionization probability increases with laser intensity and laser pulse duration until gets to saturation. After that, the ionization probability will oscillate around the saturation value if laser intensity increases further. The amplitude of oscillation increases with laser intensity at first, and then it will decrease even get to zero after a maximum peak comes out. We attribute the appearance of the oscillation to the phenomena of quantum coherence caused by the splitting of energy level in strong laser field. As to the fact that the ionization probability becomes to zero with the increase of laser intensity, it indicates that laser intensity is strong enough so as to make the neutral particles getting to the region of ionization suppression. It is also found that the variation of ionization probability with spontaneous radiation lifetime is far smaller than the one with ionization rate. So the influence of the spontaneous radiation lifetime on ionization probability could be ignored.

Nikolai B. Delone, В. П. Крайнов

Stephen W. Downey, R. S. Hozack

Two-photon-resonant, three-photon ionization of atomic hydrogen and deuterium is performed at 243 nm, and the ions are detected by time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The power dependence of the 1S-2S two-photon excitation and one-photon ionization of 2S hydrogen and deuterium are determined. The ionization step saturates at 4 x 10(6) W/cm(2). The two-photon step-power dependence varies with laser linewidth, with saturation occurring between 1 x 10(7) and 3 x 10(7) W/cm(2). The extraction electric field in the mass spectrometer does not affect the 2S excitation. Strong signals are recorded at atomic concentrations of 10(5) atoms/cm(3). Nonresonant ionization of background gases producing H(+) and D(+) is minimized.

Krzysztof Sacha, Bruno Eckhardt

Yuki Kobayashi, Maurizio Reduzzi, Kristina F. Chang +3 more

Experiments are presented on real-time probing of coherent electron dynamics in xenon initiated by strong-field double ionization. Attosecond transient absorption measurements allow for characterization of electronic coherences as well as relative ionization timings in multiple electronic states of Xe^{+} and Xe^{2+}. A high degree of coherence g=0.4 is observed between ^{3}P_{2}^{0}-^{3}P_{0}^{0} of Xe^{2+}, whereas for other possible pairs of states the coherences are below the detection limits of the experiments. A comparison of the experimental results with numerical simulations based on an uncorrelated electron-emission model shows that the coherences produced by strong-field double ionization are more selective than predicted. Surprisingly short ionization time delays, 0.85 fs, 0.64 fs, and 0.75 fs relative to Xe^{+} formation, are also measured for the ^{3}P_{2}, ^{3}P_{0}, and ^{3}P_{1} states of Xe^{2+}, respectively. Both the unpredicted selectivity in the formation of coherence and the subfemtosecond time delays of specific states provide new insight into correlated electron dynamics in strong-field double ionization.