Strong-field ionization of clusters using two-cycle pulses at 1.8 μm
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The interaction of intense laser pulses with nanoscale particles leads to the production of high-energy electrons, ions, neutral atoms, neutrons and photons. Up to now, investigations have focused on near-infrared to X-ray laser pulses consisting of many optical cycles. Here we study strong-field ionization of rare-gas clusters (103 to 105 atoms) using two-cycle 1.8 μm laser pulses to access a new interaction regime in the limit where the electron dynamics are dominated by the laser field and the cluster atoms do not have time to move significantly. The emission of fast electrons with kinetic energies exceeding 3 keV is observed using laser pulses with a wavelength of 1.8 μm and an intensity of 1 × 1015 W/cm2, whereas only electrons below 500 eV are observed at 800 nm using a similar intensity and pulse duration. Fast electrons are preferentially emitted along the laser polarization direction, showing that they are driven out from the cluster by the laser field. In addition to direct electron emission, an electron rescattering plateau is observed. Scaling to even longer wavelengths is expected to result in a highly directional current of energetic electrons on a few-femtosecond timescale.
Date Issued
2016-12-23
Date Acceptance
2016-11-24
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2016, 6
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
6
Copyright Statement
© 2016 The Authors. his work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License URL
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000390753200001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
EP/I032517/1
EP/N018680/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
SPECTRAL SHEARING INTERFEROMETRY
HIGH-HARMONIC GENERATION
INTENSE LASER-PULSES
X-RAY-EMISSION
SPATIOTEMPORAL CHARACTERIZATION
ELECTRON ACCELERATION
ANGULAR-DISTRIBUTIONS
MULTIPLE IONIZATION
ATOMIC CLUSTERS
FEMTOSECOND
physics.atm-clus
physics.optics
physics.plasm-ph
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 39664