Experimental ionization of atomic hydrogen with few-cycle laser pulses

ORAL

Abstract

We report the first experiments on ionisation of atomic hydrogen using few-cycle laser pulses. Light from an amplified titanium:sapphire laser system is compressed in a hollow-core fiber to produce 6 fs, 100 $\mu$J pulses. These pulses are focused through a beam of atomic hydrogen at peak intensities up to $10^{15} {\mbox W}/{\mbox cm}^2$. The resulting photoelectrons are energetically filtered by an electrostatic repeller and the high-energy electrons are detected by a channeltron, yielding a measurement of the integrated electron energy spectrum above the repeller voltage. The data are compared to theoretical electron spectra computed by a matrix iteration method.

*Supported by the Australian Research Council, the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and Griffith University.

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Authors

  • D. Kielpinski

    • Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-Ray Science and Centre for Quantum Dynamics, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

  • M.G. Pullen

    • Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-Ray Science and Centre for Quantum Dynamics, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

  • W.C. Wallace

    • Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-Ray Science and Centre for Quantum Dynamics, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

  • D.E. Laban

    • Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-Ray Science and Centre for Quantum Dynamics, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

  • A.J. Palmer

    • Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-Ray Science and Centre for Quantum Dynamics, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

  • R.T. Sang

    • Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-Ray Science and Centre for Quantum Dynamics, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

  • G.F. Hanne

    • Atomic and Electronics Physics Group, Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitaet, Muenster, Germany

  • K. Bartschat

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, USA

  • H.A. Quiney

    • Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-Ray Science, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia