Accurate retrieval of target structures and laser parameters of few-cycle pulses from photoelectron momentum spectra.

We illustrate a new method of analyzing three-dimensional momentum images of high-energy photoelectrons generated by intense phase-stabilized few-cycle laser pulses. Using photoelectron momentum spectra that were obtained by velocity-map imaging of above-threshold ionization of xenon and argon targets, we show that the absolute carrier-envelope phase, the laser peak intensity, and pulse duration can be accurately determined simultaneously (with an error of a few percent). We also show that the target structure, in the form of electron-target ion elastic differential cross sections, can be retrieved over a range of energies. The latter offers the promise of using laser-generated electron spectra for probing dynamic changes in molecular targets with subfemtosecond resolution.

High harmonic frequency combs for high resolution spectroscopy.

We generated a series of harmonics in a xenon gas jet inside a cavity seeded by pulses from a Ti:sapphire mode-locked laser with a repetition rate of 10.8 MHz. Harmonics up to 19th order at 43 nm were observed with plateau harmonics at the microW power level. An elaborate dispersion compensation scheme and the use of a moderate repetition rate allowed for this significant improvement in output power of the plateau harmonics of 4 orders of magnitude over previous results. With this power level and repetition rate, high-resolution spectroscopy in the extreme ultraviolet region becomes conceivable. An interesting target would be the 1S-2S transition in hydrogenlike He+ at 60 nm.

Attosecond real-time observation of electron tunnelling in atoms.

Atoms exposed to intense light lose one or more electrons and become ions. In strong fields, the process is predicted to occur via tunnelling through the binding potential that is suppressed by the light field near the peaks of its oscillations. Here we report the real-time observation of this most elementary step in strong-field interactions: light-induced electron tunnelling. The process is found to deplete atomic bound states in sharp steps lasting several hundred attoseconds. This suggests a new technique, attosecond tunnelling, for probing short-lived, transient states of atoms or molecules with high temporal resolution. The utility of attosecond tunnelling is demonstrated by capturing multi-electron excitation (shake-up) and relaxation (cascaded Auger decay) processes with subfemtosecond resolution.