Observation of energetic terahertz pulses from relativistic solid density plasmas

We report the first experimental observation of terahertz (THz) radiation from the rear surface of a solid target while interacting with an intense laser pulse. Experimental and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that the observed THz radiation is mostly emitted at large angles to the target normal. Numerical results point out that a large part of the emission originates from a micron-scale plasma sheath at the rear surface of the target, which is also responsible for the ion acceleration. This opens a perspective for the application of THz radiation detection for on-site diagnostics of particle acceleration in laser-produced plasmas

Nonlinear Coherence Effects in Transient-Absorption Ion Spectroscopy with Stochastic Extreme-Ultraviolet Free-Electron Laser Pulses

We demonstrate time-resolved nonlinear extreme-ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy on multiply charged ions, here applied to the doubly charged neon ion, driven by a phase-locked sequence of two intense free-electron laser pulses. Absorption signatures of resonance lines due to 2$p$--3$d$ bound--bound transitions between the spin-orbit multiplets $^3$P$_{0,1,2}$ and $^3$D$_{1,2,3}$ of the transiently produced doubly charged Ne$^{2+}$ ion are revealed, with time-dependent spectral changes over a time-delay range of $(2.4\pm0.3)\,\text{fs}$. Furthermore, we observe 10-meV-scale spectral shifts of these resonances owing to the AC Stark effect. We use a time-dependent quantum model to explain the observations by an enhanced coupling of the ionic quantum states with the partially coherent free-electron-laser radiation when the phase-locked pump and probe pulses precisely overlap in time

Coulomb implosion of tetrabromothiophene observed under multiphoton ionization by free-electron-laser soft-x-ray pulses

Soft-x-ray free-electron-laser pulses were used to create highly charged molecular tetrabromothiophene species by sequential multiphoton ionization from bromine 3d orbitals. The experiment was performed at the SACLA facility in Japan and the products of molecular dissociation were analyzed by means of multicoincidence momentum-resolved ion time-of-flight spectroscopy. Total charge states up to +13 atomic units were produced, creating a particular dissociation pattern for the carbon ions, a Coulomb implosion, due to the concerted forces by the surrounding heavy bromine ions. This behavior was explored both experimentally and by numerical molecular-dynamics simulations and the fingerprints of the Coulomb implosion were identified in both. In simulations, Coulomb implosion was predicted to be highly sensitive to the initial (thermal) motion of the atoms and, after including vibrational motion for several temperatures, good general agreement between the experiment and simulations was found. The agreement with the experiment was further improved by adding charge dynamics to the simulation, according to our point-charge dynamics model with empirical rate constants

Strong-field extreme-ultraviolet dressing of atomic double excitation

We report on the experimental observation of strong-field dressing of an autoionizing two-electron state in helium with intense extreme-ultraviolet laser pulses from a free-electron laser. The asymmetric Fano line shape of this transition is spectrally resolved, and we observe modifications of the resonance asymmetry structure for increasing free-electron-laser pulse energy on the order of few tens of $\mu$J. A quantum-mechanical calculation of the time-dependent dipole response of this autoionizing state, driven by classical extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) electric fields, reveals a direct link between strong-field-induced energy and phase shifts of the doubly excited state and the Fano line-shape asymmetry. The experimental results obtained at the Free-Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) thus correspond to transient energy shifts on the order of few meV, induced by strong XUV fields. These results open up a new way of performing non-perturbative XUV nonlinear optics for the light-matter interaction of resonant electronic transitions in atoms at short wavelengths