Timing Recollision in Nonsequential Double Ionization by Intense Elliptically Polarized Laser Pulses

H. Kang, K. Henrichs, M. Kunitski, Y. Wang, X. Hao, K. Fehre, A. Czasch, S. Eckart, L. Ph. H. Schmidt, M. Schöffler, T. Jahnke, X. Liu, and R. Dörner

Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 223204 – Published 1 June 2018

Abstract

We examine correlated electron and doubly charged ion momentum spectra from strong field double ionization of neon employing intense elliptically polarized laser pulses. An ellipticity-dependent asymmetry of correlated electron and ion momentum distributions has been observed. Using a 3D semiclassical model, we demonstrate that our observations reflect the subcycle dynamics of the recollision process. Our Letter reveals a general physical picture for recollision impact double ionization with elliptical polarization and demonstrates the possibility of ultrafast control of the recollision dynamics.

Received 15 December 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.223204

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Multiphoton or tunneling ionization & excitation Strong electromagnetic field effects

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

H. Kang^1,2,*, K. Henrichs¹, M. Kunitski¹, Y. Wang², X. Hao³, K. Fehre¹, A. Czasch¹, S. Eckart¹, L. Ph. H. Schmidt¹, M. Schöffler¹, T. Jahnke¹, X. Liu², and R. Dörner¹

¹Institut für Kernphysik, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
²State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China
³State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, Institute of Theoretical Physics and Department of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China

^*Kang@atom.uni-frankfurt.de

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Vol. 120, Iss. 22 — 1 June 2018

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Images

Figure 1
(a) Time information of the correlated electron emission with elliptically polarized light at 788 nm with a peak intensity of $5 \times 10^{14} W / {cm}^{2}$ . The electric field (solid curves) and vector potential (dashed curves) along the major axis (the $z$ axis) and the minor axis (the $y$ axis) are plotted as a function of time. The ellipticity is 0.25 here. Note the different scales of the electric fields and vector potentials. The boxes $A$ , $C$ and $B$ , $D$ show that the recollision occurs at $t_{r}$ before and after the $E_{z}$ field zero crossing (vertical dotted lines), respectively. (b) Calculated probability distribution of the postrecollision momentum of each electron $| p_{i 1} |$ and $| p_{i 2} |$ . The dotted vertical line denotes the value of peak vector potential [ $\sim 2 a . u .$ , corresponding roughly to the vector potential $| A (t_{r}) |$ at the recollision time $t_{r}$ ] for the peak intensity of $5 \times 10^{14} W / {cm}^{2}$ . Other laser parameters are the same as in (a). See text for details.
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Figure 2
Measured momentum distributions of ${Ne}^{2 +}$ ions in the $y − z$ polarization plane of elliptically polarized laser pulses at a peak intensity of $5 \times 10^{14} W / {cm}^{2}$ and a central wavelength of 788 nm. The ellipticities are (a) $ε = 0$ , (b) $ε = 0.1$ , (c) $ε = 0.18$ , and (d) $ε = 0.25$ . The major and minor axes are along the $z$ and $y$ axes, respectively. The color scales have been normalized for comparison purposes.
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Figure 3
Experimental (a)–(d) and calculated (e)–(h) correlated electron momentum distributions along the $y$ axis (i.e., the minor axis of the elliptical polarization) for various ellipticities. The laser parameters are the same as in Fig. 2. The momenta of both electrons along the $z$ axis are restricted to positive values. The electron pairs shown in this figure correspond to the third and fourth quadrants of Fig. 2. The color scales of the panels have been normalized for comparison purposes.
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Figure 4
Probability distributions of recollision time for various ellipticities (a) $ε = 0$ , (b) $ε = 0.1$ , (c) $ε = 0.18$ , and (d) $ε = 0.25$ . The black dash-dotted curves denote the calculated results for the electron trajectories leading to the electron pairs located in the first and third quadrants of Fig. 3. The red solid (blue dashed) curves denote the results for the electron pairs in the third (first) quadrant. The $E_{z}$ zero crossing $m T + T / 4$ is marked by vertical gray lines. The results have been normalized to the maximum of the black dash-dotted curve for each ellipticity.
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Figure 5
Probability distributions of the post-tunneling transverse momentum (along the $y$ axis) of the tunnel-ionized electron for ellipticities $ε = 0.1$ (black), 0.18 (red), and 0.25 (green), respectively. The solid and dotted lines represent the electron trajectories for the recollision before and after the $E_{z}$ zero crossing $m T + T / 4$ , respectively. The results for 0.18 and 0.25 have been multiplied by a factor of 2.7 and 6.0 for visual convenience, respectively.
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