Theoretical study of vacuum ultraviolet pulse characterization from autocorrelation signals

When an intense laser pulse interacts with a gas of atoms their valence electrons are excited and ionized. If an optical autocorrelator is used to split the pulse into two copies and superimpose them onto a target with known spectra and variable temporal delay, then information about the laser pulse is inscribed onto the ionized electrons. We present results of a theoretical study how one can infer the shape of a vacuum ultraviolet pulse from this measured total ionization yield using a perturbative approach for two-photon ionization with Gaussian pulses.