We report on non-sequential double ionization of Ar by a laser pulse consisting of two counter rotating circularly polarized fields (390 nm and 780 nm). The double ionization probability depends strongly on the relative intensity of the two fields and shows a knee-like structure as function of intensity. We conclude that double ionization is driven by a beam of nearly monoenergetic recolliding electrons, which can be controlled in intensity and energy by the field parameters. The electron momentum distributions show the recolliding electron as well as a second electron which escapes from an intermediate excited state of Ar$^+$.
We study the double ionization of atoms subjected to circularly polarized (CP) laser pulses. We analyze two fundamental ionization processes: the sequential (SDI) and non-sequential (NSDI) double ionization in the light of the rotating frame (RF) which naturally embeds nonadiabatic effects in CP pulses. We use and compare two adiabatic approximations: The adiabatic approximation in the laboratory frame (LF) and the adiabatic approximation in the RF. The adiabatic approximation in the RF encapsulates the energy variations of the electrons on subcycle timescales happening in the LF and this, by fully taking into account the ion-electron interaction. This allows us to identify two nonadiabatic effects including the lowering of the threshold intensity at which over-the-barrier ionization happens and the lowering of the ionization time of the electrons. As a consequence, these nonadiabatic effects facilitate over-the-barrier ionization and recollision-induced ionizations. We analyze the outcomes of these nonadiabatic effects on the recollision mechanism. We show that the laser envelope plays an instrumental role in a recollision channel in CP pulses at the heart of NSDI.
We demonstrate significant enhancement of frustrated double ionization (FDI) in the two-electron triatomic molecule D$_{3}^{+}$ when driven by counter-rotating two-color circular (CRTC) laser fields. We employ a three-dimensional semiclassical model that fully accounts for electron and nuclear motion in strong fields. For different pairs of wavelengths, we compute the probabilities of the FDI pathways as a function of the ratio of the two field-strengths. We identify a pathway of frustrated double ionization that is not present in strongly-driven molecules with linear fields. In this pathway the first ionization step is frustrated and electronic correlation is essentially absent. This pathway is responsible for enhancing frustrated double ionization with CRTC fields. We also employ a simple model that predicts many of the main features of the probabilities of the FDI pathways as a function of the ratio of the two field-strengths.
A way to considerably enhance terahertz radiation, emitted in the interaction of intense mid-infrared laser pulses with atomic gases, in both the total energy and the electric-field amplitude is suggested. The scheme is based on the application of a two-color field consisting of a strong circularly polarized mid-infrared pulse with wavelengths of $1.6div 4,mu{rm m}$ and its linearly or circularly polarized second harmonic of lower intensity. By combining the strong-field approximation for the ionization of a single atom with particle-in-cell simulations of the collective dynamics of the generated plasma it is shown that the application of such two-color circularly polarized laser pulses may lead to an order-of-magnitude increase in the energy emitted in the terahertz frequency domain as well as in a considerable enhancement in the maximal electric field of the terahertz pulse. Our results support recently reported experimental and numerical findings.
We investigate the polarization properties of high harmonics generated with the bichromatic counterrotating circularly polarized (BCCP) laser fields by numerically solving time-dependent Schrodinger equation (TDSE). It is found that, the helicity of the elliptically polarized harmonic emission is reversed at particular harmonic orders. Based on the time-frequency analysis and the classical three-step model, the correspondence between the positions of helicity
We examine correlated electron and doubly charged ion momentum spectra from strong field double ionization of Neon employing intense elliptically polarized laser pulses. An ellipticity-dependent asymmetry of correlated electron and ion momentum distributions has been observed. Using a 3D semiclassical model, we demonstrate that our observations reflect the sub-cycle dynamics of the recollision process. Our work reveals a general physical picture for recollision-impact double ionization with elliptical polarization, and demonstrates the possibility of ultrafast control of the recollision dynamics.