Measuring the intensity of intense laser pulses at the few-percent level

ORAL

Abstract

Strong-field measurements are often frustratingly difficult to reproduce quantitatively either through further experiment or through comparison with theory. One of the reasons for this difficulty is the large uncertainty that typically accompanies the measurement of an intense laser pulse's peak intensity, which often falls in the tens of percent range. Despite many attempts, there remains no readily accessible way to do better. And, since most strong-field processes of interest are highly nonlinear, small changes in intensity can translate to large changes in the outcome. The trick, of course, is to use this sensitivity as the measurement---but one needs a reliable calibration curve to compare with. We aim to develop a technique based on the total ionization yield of argon that can be easily implemented yet provides intensity measurements at the few-percent level through comparison with carefully calibrated solutions of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation.

*This proposal was supported by the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

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Authors

  • S. Zigo

    • Kansas State University

  • Yujun Wang

    • Kansas State University
    • J. R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University
    • J. R. Macdonald Laboratory, Department of Physics, Kansas State University
    • Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 66506

  • Jan Tross

    • Kansas State University

  • Peyman Feizollah

    • Kansas State University

  • Ben Berry

    • Kansas State University
    • J. R. Macdonald Laboratory, Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS USA 66506
    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Physics Department, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA

  • Y. Malakar

    • Kansas State University
    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University Manhattan KS 66506 USA
    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University, Manhattan KS 66506

  • Rajesh Kushawaha

    • Kansas State University

  • Vinod Kumarappan

    • Kansas State University

  • A. Rudenko

    • Kansas State University
    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University, Manhattan KS 66506

  • I. Ben-Itzhak

    • Kansas State University
    • J. R. Macdonald Laboratory, Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS USA 66506
    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Physics Department, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA
    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University Manhattan KS 66506 USA
    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University, Manhattan KS 66506

  • B.D. Esry

    • Kansas State University
    • J. R. Macdonald Laboratory, Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS USA 66506
    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Physics Department, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA
    • J. R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
    • J. R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University
    • J. R. Macdonald Laboratory, Department of Physics, Kansas State University

  • Carlos Trallero

    • Kansas State University