Frustrated tunneling ionization during laser-induced D{sub 2} fragmentation: Detection of excited metastable D{sup *} atoms

Journal Article · Sat Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.84.043425· OSTI ID:22095382

McKenna, J.; Zeng, S.; Hua, J. J.; Sayler, A. M.; Zohrabi, M.; Johnson, Nora G.; Gaire, B.; Carnes, K. D.; Esry, B. D.; Ben-Itzhak, I. ^[1]

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1. J. R. Macdonald Laboratory, Physics Department, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506 (United States)

In a recent Letter, Manschwetus et al.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 113002 (2009)] reported evidence of electron recapture during strong-field fragmentation of H{sub 2}--explained using a frustrated tunneling ionization model. Unusually, the signature of this process was detection of excited H{sup *} atoms. We report here an extensive study of this process in D{sub 2}. Our measurements encompass a study of the pulse duration, intensity, ellipticity, and angular distribution dependence of D{sup *} formation. While we find that the mechanism suggested by Manschwetus et al. is consistent with our experimental data, our theoretical work shows that electron recollision excitation cannot be completely ruled out as an alternative mechanism for D{sup *} production.

• OSTI ID: 22095382
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 84, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION
ATOMS
DETECTION
DEUTERIUM
ELECTRONS
EXCITATION
FRAGMENTATION
HYDROGEN
IONIZATION
LASERS
TUNNEL EFFECT