Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE
DC-field-induced resonance and circular dichroism effects in two-color ionization of atoms
Nikolai L. Manakov, Vitalii D Ovsiannikov
Abstract
The circular dichroism (CD) effect is predicted in a specific case of a two-color ionization of atoms, due to interfering a dc field-induced resonance two-photon ionization by electromagnetic radiation with frequency (omega) and the one- photon ionization by the wave with frequency 2(omega) . The maximum degree of CD may be observed in the range of fields where the probability for the dc field-induced two-photon ionization becomes comparable with that of the single-photon process and exceeds essentially the field-free two-photon ionization probability. The effect is sensitive to the relative phase between the two ac field components. The atomic parameters for this effect in alkali atoms are calculated. The range of fields is determined, for which the dichroism becomes observable. The use of the effect to control the branching ratio and the relative phase of the two radiations is discussed.