Enabling high-precision 3D strong-field measurements - Ionization with low-frequency fields in the tunneling regime
Abstract
Ionization of an atom or molecule presents surprising richness beyond our current understanding: strong-field ionization with low-frequency fields recently revealed unexpected kinetic energy structures (1, 2). A solid grasp on electron dynamics is however pre-requisite for attosecond-resolution recollision imaging (3), orbital tomography (4), for coherent sources of keV light (5), or to produce zeptosecond-duration x-rays (6). We present a methodology that enables scrutinizing strong-field dynamics at an unprecedented level. Our method provides high-precision measurements only 1 meV above the threshold despite 5 orders higher ponderomotive energies. Such feat was realized with a specifically developed ultrafast mid-IR light source in combination with a reaction microscope. We observe electron dynamics in the tunneling regime ({\gamma} = 0.3) and show first 3D momentum distributions demonstrating surprising new observations of near-zero momentum electrons and low momentum structures, below the eV, despite quiver energies of 95 eV.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1305.0148,
title = {Enabling high-precision 3D strong-field measurements - Ionization with low-frequency fields in the tunneling regime},
author = {J. Dura and N. Camus and A. Thai and A. Britz and M. Hemmer and M. Baudisch and A. Senftleben and C. D. Schröter and J. Ullrich and R. Moshammer and J. Biegert},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1305.0148},
year = {2013}
}