We present experimental and theoretical results of a detailed study of
laser-induced continuum structures (LICS) in the photoionization continuum of
helium out of the metastable state 2s 1S0. The continuum dressing with a
1064 nm laser, couples the same region of the continuum to the {4s 1S0}
state. The experimental data, presented for a range of intensities, show
pronounced ionization suppression (by as much as 70% with respect to the
far-from-resonance value) as well as enhancement, in a Beutler-Fano resonance
profile. This ionization suppression is a clear indication of population
trapping mediated by coupling to a contiuum. We present experimental results
demonstrating the effect of pulse delay upon the LICS, and for the behavior of
LICS for both weak and strong probe pulses. Simulations based upon numerical
solution of the Schr\"{o}dinger equation model the experimental results. The
atomic parameters (Rabi frequencies and Stark shifts) are calculated using a
simple model-potential method for the computation of the needed wavefunctions.
The simulations of the LICS profiles are in excellent agreement with
experiment. We also present an analytic formulation of pulsed LICS. We show
that in the case of a probe pulse shorter than the dressing one the LICS
profile is the convolution of the power spectra of the probe pulse with the
usual Fano profile of stationary LICS. We discuss some consequences of
deviation from steady-state theory.Comment: 29 pages, 17 figures, accepted to PR
