Boris Bergues[1], Matthias Kubel[1], Nora G. Johnson[1,2], Bettina Fischer[3], Nicolas Camus[3], Kelsie J. Betsch[1,4], Oliver Herrwerth[1], Arne Senftleben[3], A. Max Sayler[5,6], Tim Rathje[5,6], Thomas Pfeifer[3], Itzik Ben-Itzhak[2], Robert R. Jones[4], Gerhard G. Paulus[5,6], Ferenc Krausz[1], Robert Moshammer[3], Joachim Ullrich[3,7], and Matthias F. Kling [1,2]
[1] Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching 85748, Germany
[2] J.R. MacDonald Laboratory, Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506,USA
[3] Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, 69117, Germany
[4] University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
[5] Institut für Optik und Quantenelektronik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, 07743, Germany
[6] Helmholtz Institut Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany
[7] Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Braunschweig 38116, Germany
Abstract:Despite their broad implications for phenomena such as molecular bonding or chemical reactions, our knowledge of multi-electron dynamics is limited, and their theoretical modelling remains a most diffi cult task. From the experimental side, it is highly desirable to study the dynamical evolution and interaction of the electrons over the relevant timescales, which extend into the attosecond regime. Here we use near-single-cycle laser pulses with well-defi ned electric fi eld evolution to confi ne the double ionization of argon atoms to a single laser cycle. The measured two-electron momentum spectra, which strongly differ from spectra recorded in all previous experiments using longer pulses, allow us to trace the correlated emission of the two electrons on sub-femtosecond timescales. The experimental results, which are discussed in terms of a semiclassical model, provide strong constraints for the development of theories and lead us to revise common assumptions about the mechanism that governs double ionization.
Status: Published Nature Communications 3, 813 (2012).
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