Abstract
Rapid optical field ionization (OFI) for atoms and ions is distinguished using ultra-short laser pulses focussed to peak fields comparable to Coulomb binding values. This nonperturbative field description facilitates understanding of standard sequential ionization and distinguishes the double (or two-electron ejection) ionization process. Following our discovery of double optical field ionization in He+2 at 614 nm we have extended experiments to include helium, neon and argon at an 800 nm wavelength with varying ellipticity1,2. We compare double ionization data with predictions from the semi-classical model by Corkum3. New experimental results at 800 nm use 130 femtosecond laser pulses focussed to intensities of order 1016 W/cm2 in the extraction region of a 1 meter time-of-flight spectrometer. Gas pressures ranged from 10-8 to 10-5 torr.
© 1994 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
D. N. Fittinghoff and P. R. Bolton
FP75 Shortwavelength V: Physics with Intense Laser Pulses (HFSW) 1993
C.W. Siders, E. Gaul, M.C. Downer, A. Babine, and A. Stepanov
MB2 High Resolution Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTS) 1994
A. Egbert, D. Simanovskii, B.N. Chichkov, and B Wellegehausen
QThL4 European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC) 1998