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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Favorable Target Positions For Intense Laser Acceleration Of Electrons In Hydrogen-Like, Highly-Charged Ions, Liang-Wen Pi, S. X. Hu, Anthony F. Starace Aug 2015

Favorable Target Positions For Intense Laser Acceleration Of Electrons In Hydrogen-Like, Highly-Charged Ions, Liang-Wen Pi, S. X. Hu, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Classical relativistic Monte Carlo simulations of petawatt laser acceleration of electrons bound initially in hydrogen-like, highly-charged ions show that both the angles and energies of the laser-accelerated electrons depend on the initial ion positions with respect to the laser focus. Electrons bound in ions located after the laser focus generally acquire higher (≈GeV) energies and are ejected at smaller angles with respect to the laser beam. Our simulations assume a tightly-focused linearly-polarized laser pulse with intensity approaching 1022W/cm2. Up to fifth order corrections to the paraxial approximation of the laser field in the focal region are …


Photodetachment Of A Model Molecular System By An Elliptically Polarized Field, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, S. S. Marmo, Anthony F. Starace Jul 2015

Photodetachment Of A Model Molecular System By An Elliptically Polarized Field, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, S. S. Marmo, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The differential cross section for one-photon molecular detachment by an elliptically polarized field is analyzed for a one-electron molecular model comprised of an electron in the field of two (generally nonequivalent) attractive zero-range potentials (ZRPs) separated by the distance R. A phenomenological parametrization of the photodetachment cross section for a fixed-in-space molecular system in terms of two scalar dynamical parameters is presented and circular dichroism effects are discussed. Analytic results for the dynamical molecular parameters within the ZRP molecular model are used to analyze interference phenomena (including two-center interference) and dichroic effects in the detached electron angular distributions and …


Rescattering Effects In Laser-Assisted Electron-Atom Bremsstrahlung, A. N. Zheltukhin, A. V. Flegel, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace Mar 2015

Rescattering Effects In Laser-Assisted Electron-Atom Bremsstrahlung, A. N. Zheltukhin, A. V. Flegel, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Rescattering effects in non-resonant spontaneous laser-assisted electron–atom bremsstrahlung (LABrS) are analyzed within the framework of time-dependent effective-range (TDER) theory. It is shown that high energy LABrS spectra exhibit rescattering plateau structures that are similar to those that are well-known in strong field laser-induced processes as well as those that have been predicted theoretically in laser-assisted collision processes. In the limit of a low-frequency laser field, an analytic description of LABrS is obtained from a rigorous quantum analysis of the exact TDER results for the LABrS amplitude. This amplitude is represented as a sum of factorized terms involving three factors, each …


Comment On “Universality Of Returning Electron Wave Packet In High-Order Harmonic Generation With Midinfrared Laser Pulses”, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Wei-Hao Xiong, Liang-You Peng, J. Burgdörfer, Anthony F. Starace Feb 2015

Comment On “Universality Of Returning Electron Wave Packet In High-Order Harmonic Generation With Midinfrared Laser Pulses”, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Wei-Hao Xiong, Liang-You Peng, J. Burgdörfer, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

In conclusion, we have shown that when the same definition for the HHG yield is used [cf. Eq. (1)], the results of Ref. [1] give the same scaling law found earlier in Refs. [2–5] for wavelengths λ ≤ 2 μm. We note that this latter scaling law can be obtained analytically by using results of the model developed in Ref. [6] for the description of short-pulse HHG spectra. These analytic results as well as new numerical TDSE results for longer wavelengths, λ ≤ 4 μm, will be published elsewhere.


Nonlinear Dichroism In Back-To-Back Double Ionization Of He By An Intense Elliptically Polarized Few-Cycle Extreme Ultraviolet Pulse, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, N. L. Manakov, A. V. Meremianin, S. X. Hu, L. B. Madsen, Anthony F. Starace Nov 2014

Nonlinear Dichroism In Back-To-Back Double Ionization Of He By An Intense Elliptically Polarized Few-Cycle Extreme Ultraviolet Pulse, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, N. L. Manakov, A. V. Meremianin, S. X. Hu, L. B. Madsen, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Control of double ionization of He by means of the polarization and carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of an intense, few-cycle extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulse is demonstrated numerically by solving the six-dimensional two-electron, time-dependent Schrödinger equation for He interacting with an elliptically polarized XUV pulse. Guided by perturbation theory (PT), we predict the existence of a nonlinear dichroic effect (∝ I3/2) that is sensitive to the CEP, ellipticity, peak intensity I, and temporal duration of the pulse. This dichroic effect (i.e., the difference of the two-electron angular distributions for opposite helicities of the ionizing XUV pulse) originates from interference of …


Resonant Electron-Atom Bremsstrahlung In An Intense Laser Field, A. N. Zheltukhin, A. V. Flegel, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace Feb 2014

Resonant Electron-Atom Bremsstrahlung In An Intense Laser Field, A. N. Zheltukhin, A. V. Flegel, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We analyze a resonant mechanism for spontaneous laser-assisted electron bremsstrahlung (BrS) involving the resonant transition (via either laser-assisted electron-ion recombination or electron-atom attachment) into a laser-dressed intermediate quasibound state (corresponding, respectively, to either a field-free neutral atom or a negative-ion bound state) accompanied by ionization or detachment of this state by the laser field. This mechanism leads to resonant enhancement (by orders of magnitude) of the BrS spectral density for emitted photon energies corresponding to those for laser-assisted recombination or attachment. We present an accurate parametrization of the resonant BrS amplitude in terms of the amplitudes for nonresonant BrS, for …


Resonant Enhancement Of The Harmonic-Generation Spectrum Of Beryllium, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Anthony F. Starace Nov 2013

Resonant Enhancement Of The Harmonic-Generation Spectrum Of Beryllium, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The high-order harmonic-generation (HHG) spectrum of Be is investigated in the multiphoton regime by solving the full-dimensional, two-active-electron, time-dependent Schr¨odinger equation in an intense (≈1013 W/cm2), 30-cycle laser field. As the laser frequency ωL varies from 1.7 to 1.8 eV (which is in the tunable range of a Ti:sapphire laser), the seventh harmonic becomes resonant sequentially with the transition between the ground state and two doubly excited autoionizing states, 2p4s(1P) (at ωL = 1.734 eV) and 2p5s …


Carrier-Envelope-Phase-Induced Asymmetries In Double Ionization Of Helium By An Intense Few-Cycle Xuv Pulse, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, N. L. Manakov, A. V. Meremianin, Anthony F. Starace Nov 2013

Carrier-Envelope-Phase-Induced Asymmetries In Double Ionization Of Helium By An Intense Few-Cycle Xuv Pulse, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, N. L. Manakov, A. V. Meremianin, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The carrier-envelope-phase (CEP) dependence of electron angular distributions in double ionization of He by an arbitrarily polarized, few-cycle, intense XUV pulse is formulated using perturbation theory (PT) in the pulse amplitude. Owing to the broad pulse bandwidth, interference of first- and second-order PT amplitudes produces asymmetric angular distributions sensitive to the CEP. The PT parametrization is shown to be valid by comparing with results of solutions of the full-dimensional, two-electron time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the case of linear polarization.


Harmonic Generation Spectroscopy With A Two-Colour Laser Field Having Orthogonal Linear Polarizations, T. S. Sarantseva, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, M. Yu. Ivanov, Anthony F. Starace Nov 2013

Harmonic Generation Spectroscopy With A Two-Colour Laser Field Having Orthogonal Linear Polarizations, T. S. Sarantseva, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, M. Yu. Ivanov, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The interpretation of many high-order harmonic generation (HHG) experiments is based on the assumption that the HHG yield of an atom can be factorized into (i) a laser-dependent ‘electron wave packet’ with rather simple properties, including a nearly universal shape, and (ii) an atomic photorecombination cross section. We show that this factorization is restricted to linearly polarized laser fields and fails in two-colour laser fields with orthogonal polarizations. At the same time, we show how two-colour HHG spectroscopy using orthogonally polarized intense fundamental and relatively weak second harmonic fields makes a complete experiment possible that enables the retrieval of the …


Asymmetries In Production Of He+(N = 2) With An Intense Few-Cycle Attosecond Pulse, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, S. X. Hu, Wei-Chao Jiang, Liang-You Peng, Anthony F. Starace Jul 2013

Asymmetries In Production Of He+(N = 2) With An Intense Few-Cycle Attosecond Pulse, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, S. X. Hu, Wei-Chao Jiang, Liang-You Peng, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

By solving the two-electron time-dependent Schrödinger equation, we study carrier-envelope-phase (CEP) effects on ionization plus excitation of He to He+(n = 2) states by a few-cycle attosecond pulse with a carrier frequency of 51 eV. For most CEPs the asymmetries in the photoelectron angular distributions with excitation of He+(2s) or He+(2p) have opposite signs and are two orders of magnitude larger than for ionization without excitation. These results indicate that attosecond pulse CEP effects may be significantly amplified in correlated two-electron ionization processes.


Analytic Description Of Elastic Electron-Atom Scattering In An Elliptically Polarized Laser Field, A. V. Flegel, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace, A. N. Zheltukhin Jan 2013

Analytic Description Of Elastic Electron-Atom Scattering In An Elliptically Polarized Laser Field, A. V. Flegel, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace, A. N. Zheltukhin

Anthony F. Starace Publications

An analytic description of laser-assisted electron-atom scattering (LAES) in an elliptically polarized field is presented using time-dependent effective range (TDER) theory to treat both electron-laser and electron-atom interactions nonperturbatively. Closed-form formulas describing plateau features in LAES spectra are derived quantum mechanically in the low-frequency limit. These formulas provide an analytic explanation for key features of the LAES differential cross section. For the low-energy region of the LAES spectrum, our result generalizes the Kroll-Watson formula to the case of elliptic polarization. For the high-energy (rescattering) plateau in the LAES spectrum, our result generalizes prior results for a linearly polarized field valid …


High-Order-Harmonic-Generation Spectroscopy With An Elliptically Polarized Laser Field, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, T. S. Sarantseva, Anthony F. Starace Dec 2012

High-Order-Harmonic-Generation Spectroscopy With An Elliptically Polarized Laser Field, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, T. S. Sarantseva, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Analytic formulas describing high-order-harmonic generation (HHG) by atoms in an intense laser field with small ellipticity are obtained quantum mechanically in the tunneling limit. The results show that factorization of the HHG yield in terms of an electron wave packet and the photorecombination cross section (PRCS) is valid only for s states of a bound atomic electron, whereas the HHG yield for p states involves two different atomic parameters. For the latter case, elliptic HHG spectroscopy enables one to retrieve both the energy and angular dependence of the PRCS of the target atom, as we illustrate for the case of …


Threshold Effects In Strong-Field Ionization: Energy Shifts And Rydberg Structures, Katarzyna Krajewska, Ilya I. Fabrikant, Anthony F. Starace Nov 2012

Threshold Effects In Strong-Field Ionization: Energy Shifts And Rydberg Structures, Katarzyna Krajewska, Ilya I. Fabrikant, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The behavior of strong-field ionization rates of neutral atoms in the vicinity ofmultiphoton ionization thresholds is analyzed using formal collision theory.Our approach,which accounts nonperturbatively for effects of an intense laser field, shows that the ionization rates have a nearly constant behavior below and above each multiphoton threshold and that between such thresholds there are an apparently finite number of rapid oscillations due to resonances with laser-field-modified Rydberg states. This pattern is typical for any atomic target, as we illustrate specifically for hydrogen and neon atoms. The flat behavior of the ionization yield near multiphoton thresholds gives the appearance of an …


Enhanced Asymmetry In Few-Cycle Attosecond Pulse Ionization Of He In The Vicinity Of Autoionizing Resonances, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, S. X. Hu, Wei-Chao Jiang, Liang-You Peng, Anthony F. Starace Sep 2012

Enhanced Asymmetry In Few-Cycle Attosecond Pulse Ionization Of He In The Vicinity Of Autoionizing Resonances, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, S. X. Hu, Wei-Chao Jiang, Liang-You Peng, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

By solving the two-active-electron, time-dependent Schrödinger equation in its full dimensionality, we investigate the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) dependence of single ionization of He to the He+(1s) state triggered by an intense few-cycle attosecond pulse with carrier frequency ω corresponding to the energy ћω = 36 eV. Effects of electron correlations are probed by comparing projections of the final state of the two-electron wave packet onto field-free highly correlated Jacobi matrix wave functions with projections onto uncorrelated Coulomb wave functions. Significant differences are found in the vicinity of autoionizing resonances. Owing to the broad bandwidths of our 115 and …


Resonant Phenomena In Laser-Assisted Radiative Attachment Or Recombination, A. N. Zheltukhin, A. V. Flegel, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace Mar 2012

Resonant Phenomena In Laser-Assisted Radiative Attachment Or Recombination, A. N. Zheltukhin, A. V. Flegel, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Resonant enhancements are predicted in cross sections σn for laser-assisted radiative attachment or electron–ion recombination accompanied by absorption of n laser photons. These enhancements occur for incoming electron energies at which the electron can be attached or recombined by emitting μ laser photons followed by emission of a spontaneous photon upon absorbing n + μ laser photons. The close similarity between rescattering plateaus in spectra of resonant attachment/recombination and of high-order harmonic generation is shown based on a general parametrization for σn and on numerical results for e−H attachment.


Analytic Theory Of High-Order-Harmonic Generation By An Intense Few-Cycle Laser Pulse, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. M. Popov, O. V. Tikhonova, E. A. Volkova, A. A. Silaev, N. V. Vvedenskii, Anthony F. Starace Mar 2012

Analytic Theory Of High-Order-Harmonic Generation By An Intense Few-Cycle Laser Pulse, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. M. Popov, O. V. Tikhonova, E. A. Volkova, A. A. Silaev, N. V. Vvedenskii, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We present a theoretical model for describing the interaction of an electron, weakly bound in a short-range potential, with an intense, few-cycle laser pulse. General definitions for the differential probability of above-threshold ionization and for the yield of high-order-harmonic generation (HHG) are presented. For HHG we then derive detailed analytic expressions for the spectral density of generated radiation in terms of the key laser parameters, including the number N of optical cycles in the pulse and the carrier-envelope phase (CEP). In particular, in the tunneling approximation, we provide detailed derivations of the closed-form formulas presented briefly by M. V. Frolov …


Attosecond Streaking In The Low-Energy Region As A Probe Of Rescattering, Ming-Hui Xu, Liang-You Peng, Zheng Zhang, Qihuang Gong, Xiao-Min Tong, Evgeny A. Pronin, Anthony F. Starace Oct 2011

Attosecond Streaking In The Low-Energy Region As A Probe Of Rescattering, Ming-Hui Xu, Liang-You Peng, Zheng Zhang, Qihuang Gong, Xiao-Min Tong, Evgeny A. Pronin, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The dynamics of low-energy photoelectrons (PEs) ionized by a single attosecond pulse in the presence of an intense infrared (IR) laser field is investigated. Whereas attosecond streaking usually involves momentum shifts of high-energy PEs, when PEs have low initial kinetic energies, the IR field can control the continuum-electron dynamics by inducing PE scattering from the residual ion. A semiclassical model is used to show that particular PE trajectories in the continuum involving electron-ion scattering explain the interference patterns exhibited in the low-energy PE spectrum. We confirm the effects of the trajectories by means of a full quantum simulation.


Two-Photon Double Ionization Of Helium: Evolution Of The Joint Angular Distribution With Photon Energy And Two-Electron Energy Sharing, Zheng Zhang, Liang-You Peng, Ming-Hui Xu, Anthony F. Starace, Toru Morishita, Qihuang Gong Oct 2011

Two-Photon Double Ionization Of Helium: Evolution Of The Joint Angular Distribution With Photon Energy And Two-Electron Energy Sharing, Zheng Zhang, Liang-You Peng, Ming-Hui Xu, Anthony F. Starace, Toru Morishita, Qihuang Gong

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Ab initio calculations of two-photon double ionization of helium with photon energies varying from the nonsequential regime to well above the double-ionization threshold are presented. A systematic study of the joint angular distributions of the two ionized electrons at different energy sharing shows that the role of electron correlations is imprinted in the joint angular distribution. In particular, a rather general pattern is identified in the nonsequential regime that is independent of photon energy, pulse length, and energy sharing between the two electrons. Interestingly, the same distribution pattern is found for the equal-energy-sharing case, even when the photon energy is …


Perturbation-Theory Analysis Of Ionization By A Chirped Few-Cycle Attosecond Pulse, Evgeny A. Pronin, Anthony F. Starace, Liang-You Peng Jul 2011

Perturbation-Theory Analysis Of Ionization By A Chirped Few-Cycle Attosecond Pulse, Evgeny A. Pronin, Anthony F. Starace, Liang-You Peng

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The angular distribution of electrons ionized from an atom by a chirped few-cycle attosecond pulse is analyzed using perturbation theory (PT), keeping terms in the transition amplitude up to second order in the pulse electric field. The dependence of the asymmetry in the ionized electron distributions on both the chirp and the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of the pulse are explained using a simple analytical formula that approximates the exact PT result. This approximate formula (in which the chirp dependence is explicit) reproduces reasonably well the chirp-dependent oscillations of the electron angular distribution asymmetries found numerically by Peng et al. [Phys. …


Evidence Of The 2S2 P(1P) Doubly Excited State In The Harmonic Generation Spectrum Of Helium, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Anthony F. Starace Jul 2011

Evidence Of The 2S2 P(1P) Doubly Excited State In The Harmonic Generation Spectrum Of Helium, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

By solving the two-active-electron time-dependent Schrödinger equation in an intense, ultrashort laser field, we investigate evidence of electron correlations in the high-order harmonic generation spectrum of helium. As the frequency of the driving laser pulse varies from 4.6 to 6.6 eV, the 13th, 11th, and 9th harmonics sequentially become resonant with the transition between the ground state and the isolated 2s2p(1P) autoionizing state of helium, which dramatically enhances these harmonics and changes their profiles. When each of the 9th and 13th harmonics are in resonance with this autoionizing state, there is also a …


Analytic Confirmation That The Factorized Formula For Harmonic Generation Involves The Exact Photorecombination Cross Section, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, T. S. Sarantseva, Anthony F. Starace Apr 2011

Analytic Confirmation That The Factorized Formula For Harmonic Generation Involves The Exact Photorecombination Cross Section, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, T. S. Sarantseva, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

High-order-harmonic generation (HHG) by atoms in a strong laser field is analyzed theoretically, taking into account atomic potential effects beyond the strong field approximation (SFA). Our analytical derivation extends the time-dependent effective range (TDER) theory, developed previously for a short-range potential supporting only a single bound state, to the case of a potential supporting two bound states having different angular momenta and dynamically interacting with the continuum. In contrast to the SFA and the single-state TDER model, in both of which the HHG rates in the region of the high-energy plateau cutoff involve only the plane-wave (first Born) approximation for …


High-Order Harmonic Generation By Atoms In A Few-Cycle Laser Pulse: Carrier-Envelope Phase And Many-Electron Effects, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. A. Silaev, N. V. Vvedenskii, Anthony F. Starace Feb 2011

High-Order Harmonic Generation By Atoms In A Few-Cycle Laser Pulse: Carrier-Envelope Phase And Many-Electron Effects, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. A. Silaev, N. V. Vvedenskii, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Analytic formulas describing high-order harmonic generation (HHG) by atoms in a short laser pulse are obtained quantum mechanically in the tunneling limit. These results provide analytic expressions of the three-step HHG scenario, as well as of the returning electron wave packet, in a few-cycle pulse. Our results agree well with those of numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the H atom, while for Xe they predict many-electron atomic dynamics features in few-cycle HHG spectra and significant dependence of these features on the carrier-envelope phase of a laser pulse.


Decay Of A Negative Molecular Ion In A Constant Electric Field, S. V. Borzunov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace, M. V. Frolov Jan 2011

Decay Of A Negative Molecular Ion In A Constant Electric Field, S. V. Borzunov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace, M. V. Frolov

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The problem of the shift and broadening of the electron energy levels in the field of two 3D short-range potentials (e.g., the model of a negative molecular ion) by a constant electric field F is considered. The interaction of an electron with attraction centers is taken into account in the effective range approximation. We analyze the cases when both centers maintain weakly bound s states and when the electron state in the field of one of the centers is a p state. Exact numerical results for the shift and the width of the energy levels of a quasi-molecule as functions …


Detecting Electron Motion In Atoms And Molecules, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace Dec 2010

Detecting Electron Motion In Atoms And Molecules, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The detection of spatial and temporal electronic motion by scattering of subfemtosecond pulses of 10 keV electrons from coherent superpositions of electronic states of both H and T+2 is investigated. For the H atom, we predict changes in the diffraction images that reflect the time-dependent effective radius of the electronic charge density. For an aligned T+2 molecule, the diffraction image changes reflect the time-dependent localization or delocalization of the electronic charge density.


Unl Physicists Model Potential 4-D Imaging Technique, Tom Simons, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace Dec 2010

Unl Physicists Model Potential 4-D Imaging Technique, Tom Simons, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

A long-standing goal of science is to be able to understand how matter behaves at the atomic and subatomic level. How electrons rearrange when atoms or molecules come together is the essence of chemistry, and the ability to manipulate those rearrangements is the goal of the emerging sphere of nanotechnology. A fuller understanding could lead to enormous scientific and technological breakthroughs. Unfortunately, significant problems confront scientists and engineers in attacking the question. Not only are atoms and molecules very small, requiring highly specialized equipment to "see" them, everything at the atomic level happens very, very fast. For example, an electron …


Movies Of Electrons In Atoms, Michael Schirber, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace Dec 2010

Movies Of Electrons In Atoms, Michael Schirber, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Physicists have long been able to snap atomic-scale pictures by shining a beam of electrons at a target, but filming the electronic structure of an atom as it changes in time is the next goal. A rapid "strobing" of electron pulses less than a millionth of a billionth of a second long should do the trick, according to a theoretical analysis in the 24 December Physical Review Letters. The authors demonstrate with computer simulations that ultrafast electron pulses could track the "breathing" state of an excited atom or the hopping of electrons between atoms in a molecule. Such movies open …


Potential Barrier Effects In Two-Photon Ionization Processes, Liang-Wen Pi, Anthony F. Starace Nov 2010

Potential Barrier Effects In Two-Photon Ionization Processes, Liang-Wen Pi, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Potential barriers in the effective radial potential experienced by a photoexcited electron are shown to result in dramatic, resonancelike effects in two-photon ionization processes. In a two-photon ionization process, such potential barriers may affect not only the final state of the electron (as in ordinary photoionization), but also the intermediate-state electron wave packet corresponding to the absorption of one photon. We illustrate these effects for the generalized two-photon cross sections for ionization of Ar and Xe within a single-active-electron, central-potential model.


Potential Barrier Effects In High-Order Harmonic Generation By Transition-Metal Ions, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace Aug 2010

Potential Barrier Effects In High-Order Harmonic Generation By Transition-Metal Ions, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The experimental finding of significant enhancement or suppression of particular harmonics generated by the ionic component of laser-produced plasmas of transition-metal atoms is explained theoretically in terms of the standard three-step scenario for strong-field harmonic generation, taking into account the potential barrier effects that lead to a strong 3p → 3d electric dipole transition that dominates the photoionization cross sections of the outer subshells of those ions.


Perturbation Theory Analysis Of Attosecond Photoionization, Anthony F. Starace, Evgeny A. Pronin, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov Dec 2009

Perturbation Theory Analysis Of Attosecond Photoionization, Anthony F. Starace, Evgeny A. Pronin, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Ionization of an atom by a few-cycle attosecond xuv pulse is analyzed using perturbation theory (PT), keeping terms in the transition amplitude up to second order in the pulse electric field. Within the PT approach, we present an ab initio parametrization of the ionized electron angular distribution (AD) using rotational invariance and symmetry arguments. This parametrization gives analytically the dependence of the AD on the carrier envelope phase (CEP), the polarization of the pulse, and on the ionized electron momentum direction, p^ . For the general case of an elliptically polarized pulse, we show that interference of the first- and …


Few-Cycle Attosecond Pulse Chirp Effects On Asymmetries In Ionized Electron Momentum Distributions, Liang-You Peng, Fang Tan, Qihuang Gong, Evgeny A. Pronin, Anthony F. Starace Jul 2009

Few-Cycle Attosecond Pulse Chirp Effects On Asymmetries In Ionized Electron Momentum Distributions, Liang-You Peng, Fang Tan, Qihuang Gong, Evgeny A. Pronin, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The momentum distributions of electrons ionized from H atoms by chirped few-cycle attosecond pulses are investigated by numerically solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The central carrier frequency of the pulse is chosen to be 25 eV, which is well above the ionization threshold. The asymmetry (or difference) in the yield of electrons ionized along and opposite to the direction of linear laser polarization is found to be very sensitive to the pulse chirp (for pulses with fixed carrier-envelope phase), both for a fixed electron energy and for the energy-integrated yield. In particular, the larger the pulse chirp, the larger the …