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Physical Review A

Coherence and quasistable states in a strong infrared field

Changchun Zhong, F. Robicheaux

Published Mar 10, 2016• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study the quasistability of UV-pulse-train-excited H atoms in a strong infrared (IR) laser as a function of the phase delay of the UV pulse train relative to the IR laser. The UV pulse train contains two frequency components. When the two components have frequencies separated by two IR photons, the population of surviving electrons is modulated by up to ten percent. When electrons are excited to right above or below the threshold, the survival probabilities have inverted phase delay dependence, which can be explained classically. When the two frequencies are one IR photon apart, the angular symmetry of the quasistable electrons is broken, and the asymmetry is also controlled by the phase delay. The asymmetrical distribution can be observed while the IR is on and smoothly evolves to a nonzero asymmetry that only weakly depends on the duration of the IR field.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.93.033410

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We study the quasistability of UV-pulse-train-excited H atoms in a strong infrared (IR) laser as a function of the phase delay of the UV pulse train relative to the IR laser. The UV pulse train contains two frequency components. When the two components have frequencies separated by two IR photons, the population of surviving electrons is modulated by up to ten percent. When electrons are excited to right above or below the threshold, the survival probabilities have inverted phase delay dependence, which can be explained classically. When the two frequencies are one IR photon apart, the angular symmetry of the quasistable electrons is broken, and the asymmetry is also controlled by the phase delay. The asymmetrical distribution can be observed while the IR is on and smoothly evolves to a nonzero asymmetry that only weakly depends on the duration of the IR field.
The quasi-stability of highly-exicited H and He atoms in a strong infrared (IR) field is studied based on three-dimensional quantum calculations.The spectra of atoms that survive the IR field show a series of IR-frequency-modulated peaks which extend from deeply bound states all the way to the ionization threshold and above.The atoms that survive mainly consist of highly-excited Rydberg states, even after hundreds of the intense IR cycles.Also they tend to have initial energies which allow emission or absorption of an integer number of IR photons to reach these quasi-stable states.Peaks above the ionization threshold in the survival spectra indicate the existence of multi-photon assisted recombination in the intense IR field.
We theoretically study the infrared (IR)-dressed photoionization of atoms excited by extreme ultraviolet attosecond pulse trains above ionization threshold. The initial state of atoms is treated perturbatively by the IR field, and the continuum states are considered as Coulomb–Volkov (CV) waves. CV waves can much reduce the gauge difference calculated with Volkov waves, and, in general, the contribution of ground-state perturbation to the photoelectron spectrum is negligible. Our calculations show qualitative agreement with the experimental results [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 013001 (2005)]. An evident dependence of the photoelectron spectrum on the delay phase between the IR field and the attosecond pulse train is exhibited in both helium and argon. The angular distribution of photoelectrons with various IR polarizations and the corresponding photoelectron spectra are presented. The linearly polarized IR fields are shown to have a higher controlling capability of the spectrum via IR delay phases than the circularly polarized fields. On the other hand, the circularly polarized IR fields have a fruitful angular dependence of photoelectrons with various IR delay phases.
When atoms are exposed to intense laser or microwave pulses, $\ensuremath{\sim}10%$ of the atoms are found in Rydberg states subsequent to the pulse, even if it is far more intense than required for static field ionization. The optical spectra of the surviving Li atoms in the presence of a 38-GHz microwave field suggest how atoms survive an intense pulse. The spectra exhibit a periodic train of peaks 38 GHz apart. One peak is just below the limit, and with a 90-V/cm field amplitude the train extends from 300 GHz above the limit to 3000 GHz below it. The spectra and quantum-mechanical calculations imply that the atoms survive in quasistable states in which the Rydberg electron is in a weakly bound orbit infrequently returning to the ionic core during the intense pulse.
We experimentally demonstrate that atomic orbital parity mix interferences can be temporally controlled on an attosecond time scale. Electron wave packets are formed by ionizing argon gas with a comb of odd and even high-order harmonics, in the presence of a weak infrared field. Consequently, a mix of energy-degenerate even and odd parity states is fed in the continuum by one- and two-photon transitions. These interfere, leading to an asymmetric electron emission along the polarization vector. The direction of the emission can be controlled by varying the time delay between the comb and infrared field pulses. We show that such asymmetric emission provides information on the relative phase of consecutive odd and even order harmonics in the attosecond pulse train.
We calculate the transient absorption of an isolated attosecond pulse (IAP) by helium atoms subject to a delayed infrared (IR) laser pulse. With the central frequency of the broad attosecond spectrum near the ionization threshold, the absorption spectrum is strongly modulated at the sub-IR-cycle level. Given that the absorption spectrum results from a time-integrated measurement, we investigate the extent to which the delay dependence of the absorption yields information about the attosecond dynamics of the atom-field energy exchange. We find two configurations in which this is possible. The first involves multiphoton transitions between bound states that result in interference between different excitation pathways. The second involves the modification of the bound state absorption lines by the IR field, which we find can result in a subcycle time dependence only when ionization limits the duration of the strong-field interaction.
A model which describes the time evolution of strong-field photoionization of atoms is presented. Based on the numerical solution of the non-stationary Schrodinger equation, the model allows one to predict and to interpret the results of experiments on double photoionization of atoms by a combined action of a very short (attosecond) XUV pulse and a few-cycle IR pulse of a powerful laser at various delay times between the two pulses. Depending on the binding energy of the ionized electron, two types of processes are considered. If the electron is tightly bound (Ne case), the XUV pulse ionizes the atom and shakes up another (outer) electron to an excited state, which is subsequently ionized by the strong IR field. For an atom with a weakly bound outer electron (Li case), the IR field ionizes the latter, while the XUV pulse, ionizing the inner shell, terminates (or suppresses) the strong-field ionization. In both cases the yield of doubly ionized ions strongly depends on the delay time between the two pulses, revealing 'steps', oscillations and other features which characterize the time evolution of the ionization process. The presented model describes qualitatively the results of recent experiments on Ne.