The interaction of excited atoms and few-cycle laser pulses
Date
2016-09-26
Authors
Calvert, J E
Xu, Han
Palmer, A J
Glover, R D
Laban, D E
Tong, X M
Kheifets, Anatoli
Bartschat, K
Litvinyuk, I V
Kielpinski, D
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Abstract
This work describes the first observations of the ionisation of neon in a metastable atomic state utilising a strong-field, few-cycle light pulse. We compare the observations to theoretical predictions based on the Ammosov-Delone-Krainov (ADK) theory and a solution to the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE). The TDSE provides better agreement with the experimental data than the ADK theory. We optically pump the target atomic species and measure the ionisation rate as the a function of different steady-state populations in the fine structure of the target state which shows significant ionisation rate dependence on populations of spin-polarised states. The physical mechanism for this effect is unknown.
Description
Keywords
ionisation, neon, metastable, Ammosov-Delone-Krainov (ADK), time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE)
Citation
Collections
Source
Scientific reports
Type
Journal article
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
Open Access