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Strong-field ionization with two-color circularly polarized laser fields

Journal Article · · Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [5];  [6];  [3];  [2];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Colorado and NIST, Boulder, CO (United States); JILA, University of Colorado Boulder
  2. Univ. of Colorado and NIST, Boulder, CO (United States)
  3. Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Israel)
  4. Univ. of Tsukuba (Japan)
  5. National Tsing Hua Univ., Hsinchu (Taiwan)
  6. Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Israel); Ort Braude College, Karmiel (Israel)
Strong-field ionization provides fundamental insight into light-matter interactions, encoding the structure of atoms and molecules on the subångström and subfemtosecond scales. Here, we explore an important regime: strong-field ionization by two-color circularly polarized laser fields. In contrast to past work using linearly polarized drivers, we probe electron trajectories that are driven in a two-dimensional plane, thus separating the tunneling angle from the rescattering angle. This allows us to make several findings. First, we observe a single-lobed electron distribution for co-rotating fields, and a three-lobed distribution for counter-rotating fields, providing experimental validation of the theoretical model explaining the generation of circularly polarized high harmonic light. Second, we discover that there is significant electron-ion rescattering using counter-rotating fields, but not with co-rotating fields. Finally, we show that the rescattered electrons are well separated from the directly ionized electrons, in striking contrast to similar low-energy structures seen with linearly polarized fields. These findings help overcome the long-standing problem of how to decouple the tunneling and rescattering steps in strong-field ionization, which will enable new dynamic probes of atomic and molecular structure.
Research Organization:
National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
German Research Foundation (DFG); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); National Science Foundation (NSF); Swedish Research Council (SRC); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences Division; e USA-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-99ER14982
OSTI ID:
1690344
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1181298
Journal Information:
Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 91; ISSN 1050-2947
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (35)

Molecules in a bicircular strong laser field journal April 2018
Non-collinear generation of angularly isolated circularly polarized high harmonics journal September 2015
Electron spin polarization in strong-field ionization of xenon atoms journal June 2016
Polarization-fan high-order harmonics journal January 2017
Channel-closing effects in strong-field ionization by a bicircular field journal February 2018
Elements of the quantitative rescattering theory journal April 2018
Probing atomic and molecular targets by intense bicircular counter-rotating laser fields journal June 2018
Initializing anisotropic electron velocity distribution functions in optical-field ionized plasmas journal January 2020
Pulse-length effects in strong-field ionization of atoms by co-rotating and counter-rotating bicircular laser pulses journal October 2019
Spectroscopy of atomic orbital sizes using bi-elliptical high-order harmonic generation journal October 2019
Modeling tomographic measurements of photoelectron vortices in counter-rotating circularly polarized laser pulses journal December 2019
Bicircular-laser-field-assisted electron-ion radiative recombination journal November 2015
Exterior time scaling with the stiffness-free Lanczos time propagator: Formulation and application to atoms interacting with strong midinfrared lasers journal March 2016
Possibility of introducing spin into attoscience with spin-polarized electrons produced by a bichromatic circularly polarized laser field journal May 2016
Controlling electron-ion rescattering in two-color circularly polarized femtosecond laser fields journal May 2016
Improved strong-field approximation and quantum-orbit theory: Application to ionization by a bicircular laser field journal June 2016
Multistart spiral electron vortices in ionization by circularly polarized UV pulses journal July 2016
Retrieval of target structure information from laser-induced photoelectrons by few-cycle bicircular laser fields journal March 2017
Subcycle interference upon tunnel ionization by counter-rotating two-color fields journal April 2018
Two-color phase-of-the-phase spectroscopy with circularly polarized laser pulses journal November 2018
Electron rotational asymmetry in strong-field photodetachment from F − by circularly polarized laser pulses journal February 2019
Controlling Nonsequential Double Ionization in Two-Color Circularly Polarized Femtosecond Laser Fields journal September 2016
Nonsequential Double Ionization by Counterrotating Circularly Polarized Two-Color Laser Fields journal September 2016
Comparison Study of Strong-Field Ionization of Molecules and Atoms by Bicircular Two-Color Femtosecond Laser Pulses journal November 2017
Attoclock Photoelectron Interferometry with Two-Color Corotating Circular Fields to Probe the Phase and the Amplitude of Emitting Wave Packets journal February 2018
Direct Experimental Access to the Nonadiabatic Initial Momentum Offset upon Tunnel Ionization journal October 2018
Study of the circular dichroism of He + ion journal January 2019
Helicity asymmetry in strong-field ionization of atoms by a bicircular laser field journal January 2018
Intensity-dependent two-electron emission dynamics in nonsequential double ionization by counter-rotating two-color circularly polarized laser fields journal January 2018
Nonsequential double ionization by co-rotating two-color circularly polarized laser fields journal January 2019
Two-dimensional photoelectron holography in strong-field tunneling ionization by counter rotating two-color circularly polarized laser pulses journal January 2019
Exterior time scaling with stiffness-free Lanczos time propagator: formulation and application to atoms interacting with strong mid-infrared lasers text January 2015
Non-Sequential Double Ionization by Counter Rotating Circularly Polarized Two-Color Laser Fields text January 2016
Electron rotational asymmetry in strong-field photodetachment from F$^-$ by circularly polarized laser pulses text January 2019
Modeling tomographic measurements of photoelectron vortices in counter-rotating circularly polarized laser pulses text January 2019

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