Monitoring and controlling the electron dynamics in helium with isolated attosecond pulses

Helium atoms in the presence of extreme ultraviolet light pulses can lose electrons through direct photoionization or through two-electron excitation followed by autoionization. Here we demonstrate that, by combining attosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses with near infrared femtosecond lasers, electr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2010-12, Vol.105 (26), p.263003-263003, Article 263003
Main Authors: Gilbertson, Steve, Chini, Michael, Feng, Ximao, Khan, Sabih, Wu, Yi, Chang, Zenghu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
AUTOIONIZATION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
EXCITATION
EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
FERMIONS
FLUIDS
GASES
HELIUM
INTERFERENCE
IONIZATION
LASERS
LEPTONS
NONMETALS
PHOTOIONIZATION
PULSES
RADIATIONS
RARE GASES
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
VISIBLE RADIATION
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Summary:Helium atoms in the presence of extreme ultraviolet light pulses can lose electrons through direct photoionization or through two-electron excitation followed by autoionization. Here we demonstrate that, by combining attosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses with near infrared femtosecond lasers, electron dynamics in helium autoionization can be not only monitored but also controlled. Furthermore, the interference between the two ionization channels was modified by the intense near infrared laser pulse. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that double excitation and autoionization were studied experimentally by using isolated attosecond pulses.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.263003