Intra- and intercycle interference of electron emission in laser assisted XUV atomic ionization

We study the ionization of atomic hydrogen in the direction of polarization due to a linearly polarized XUV pulse in the presence a strong field IR. We describe the photoelectron spectra as an interference problem in the time domain. Electron trajectories steming from different optical laser cycles give rise to intercycle interference energy peaks known as sidebands. These sidebands are modulated by a grosser structure coming from the intracycle interference of the two electron trajectories born during the same optical cycle. We make use of a simple semiclassical model which offers the possibility to establish a connection between emission times and the photoelectron kinetic energy. We compare the semiclassical predictions with the continuum-distorted wave strong field approximation and the ab initio solution of the time dependent Schr\"odinger equation. We analyze such interference pattern as a function of the time delay between the IR and XUV pulse and also as a function of the laser intensity

Time Double-Slit Interference in Tunneling Ionization

We show that interference phenomena plays a big role for the electron yield in ionization of atoms by an ultra-short laser pulse. Our theoretical study of single ionization of atoms driven by few-cycles pulses extends the photoelectron spectrum observed in the double-slit experiment by Lindner et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{95}, 040401 (2005) to a complete three-dimensional momentum picture. We show that different wave packets corresponding to the same single electron released at different times interfere, forming interference fringes in the two-dimensional momentum distributions. These structures reproduced by means of \textit{ab initio} calculations are understood within a semiclassical model.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Non-constant ponderomotive energy in above threshold ionization by intense short laser pulses

We analyze the contribution of the quiver kinetic energy acquired by an electron in an oscillating electric field to the energy balance in atomic ionization processes by a short laser pulse. Due to the time dependence of this additional kinetic energy, a temporal average is assumed to maintain a stationary energy conservation rule. This rule is used to predict the position of the peaks observed in the photo electron spectra (PE). For a flat top pulse envelope, the mean value of the quiver energy over the whole pulse leads to the concept of ponderomotive energy $U_{p}$. However for a short pulse with a fast changing field intensity a stationarity approximation could not be precise. We check these concepts by studying first the photoelectron (PE) spectrum within the Semiclassical Model (SCM) for a multiple steps pulses. The SCM offers the possibility to establish a connection between emission times and the PE spectrum in the energy domain. We show that PE substructures stem from ionization at different times mapping the pulse envelope. We also present the analysis of the PE spectrum for a realistic sine-squared envelope within the Coulomb-Volkov and \textit{ab initio} calculations solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation. We found that the electron emission amplitudes produced at different times interfere with each other and produce a new additional pattern, that overlap the above-threshold ionization (ATI) peaks.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Multiple scattering of slow muons in an electron gas

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Laser-assisted photoionization: beyond the dipole approximation

We present a theoretical study of atomic laser-assisted photoionization emission (LAPE) beyond the dipole approximation. By considering the non-relativistic non-dipole strong-field approximation (non-dipole Gordon-Volkov wave function), we analyze the different contributions to the photoelectron spectrum (PES), which can be written in terms of intra- and intercycle factors. We find that not only does our non-dipole approach exhibit asymmetric emission in the direction of light propagation, but also allows emission in dipole-forbidden directions. The former feature can be rooted both in intra- and intercycle interference processes, whilst the latter stems from a dependence of the sideband energy on the emission angle with respect to the propagation direction. Our theoretical scheme, presented here for He atoms in the 1s quantum state, is general enough to be applied to other atomic species and field configurations.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2006.0065

Classical-quantum correspondence in atomic ionization by midinfrared pulses: Multiple peak and interference structures

Atomic ionization by strong and ultrashort laser pulses with frequencies in the midinfrared spectral region have revealed novel features such as the low-energy structures. We have performed fully three-dimensional quantum dynamical as well as classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulations for pulses with wavelengths from λ=2000 to 6000 nm. Furthermore, we apply distorted-wave quantum approximations. This allows to explore the quantum-classical correspondence as well as the (non) perturbative character of the ionization dynamics driven by long-wavelength pulses. We observe surprisingly rich structures in the differential energy and angular momentum distribution which sensitively depend on λ, the pulse duration τp, and the carrier-envelope phase ϕCEP

Retrieving intracycle interference in angle-resolved laser-assisted photoemission from argon

We report on a combined experimental and theoretical study of XUV ionization of atomic argon in the presence of a near-infrared (NIR) laser field. Using a table-top source of wavelength-selected femtosecond XUV pulses in combination with a velocity map imaging spectrometer we record angle- and energy-resolved photoelectron distributions and simulate the experimental data by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation ab initio. In order to compare with the experimental data we average the calculated energy-angle probability distributions over the experimental focal volume for different values of the magnetic quantum number of the photoelectron. This averaging procedure washes out the intracycle interference pattern, which would otherwise be observed in the form of angular modulations of the photoelectron spectra. We recover these modulations experimentally and in the simulations by evaluating the difference between two averaged distributions that are obtained for slightly different NIR laser field intensities.Fil: Hummert, Johan. Max Born Institute; AlemaniaFil: Kubin, Markus. Max Born Institute; AlemaniaFil: López, Sebastián David. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio. - Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio; ArgentinaFil: Fuks, Johanna Ildemar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Morales, Felipe. Max Born Institute; AlemaniaFil: Vrakking, Marc J. J.. Max Born Institute; AlemaniaFil: Kornilov, Oleg. Max Born Institute; AlemaniaFil: Arbó, Diego G.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio. - Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio; Argentin

Minimal irreversible quantum mechanics. The decay of unstable states

Brownian motion is modelled by a harmonic oscillator (Brownian particle) interacting with a continuous set of uncoupled harmonic oscillators. The interaction is linear in the coordinates and the momenta. The model has an analytical solution that is used to study the time evolution of the reduced density operator. It is derived in a closed form, in the one-particle sector of the model. The irreversible behavior of the Brownian particle is described by a reduced density matrix.Comment: 39 pages, 2 figure