Electron correlations in nonsequential double ionization of argon atoms by elliptically polarized laser pulses

Using a classical ensemble model, we investigate the correlation behaviour of electrons originating from nonsequential double ionization （NSDI） of argon atoms by the elliptically polarized laser pulses. Because of the ellipticity, not only the first electron to return but also the later return of tunneled electrons contribute significantly to NSDI. We mainly discuss two kinds of events of NSDI originating from the first and the second return separately. For the NSDI resulting from the recollision of the first return, the correlated electron momentum spectrum along the long axis of the laser polarization plane reveals an obvious V-like shape, located at the first and third quadrant. However, for the NSDI resulting from the recollision of the second return, the momenta of two electrons are distributed in the four quadrants uniformly. By analysing the trajectories of these two kinds, we find that the recollision energy and the laser phase at recollision are different for the first and second returning trajectories, which are responsible for the difference in the correlated behavior of the final electron momentum.

Effect of elliptical polarizations on nonsequential double ionization in two-color elliptically polarized laser fields

Using the classical ensemble model, we investigate the nonsequential double ionization（NSDI） of Ar and Mg in the two-color elliptically polarized laser pulse for different elliptical polarizations. Numerical results show that for Ar atoms the NSDI yield increases as the ellipticity increases, which is different from the case of Mg atoms. Moreover, the correlated behavior in the correlated electron momentum along the x direction and ion momentum distributions of Ar atoms are influenced by the ellipticity. By statistical analysis of different times, we can conclude that the ellipticity may be responsible for the NSDI processes. The correlated momenta distributions along the x direction at the recollision time are demonstrated and the results show that the travelling time and ellipticity can affect the emitted directions of both electrons.

Semiclassical investigation of Coulomb focusing effects in atomic above-threshold ionization with elliptically polarized laser fields

We investigate atomic above-threshold ionization in elliptically polarized strong laser fields with a semiclassical approach.With increasing laser intensity,the Coulomb focusing（CF） effects are found to become stronger in both parallel and perpendicular directions with respect to the polarization plane.The dependence of CF effects on tunnel exit,initial transverse momentum distribution and laser electric field is analyzed.It was revealed that the effects of tunnel exit are most prominent with variation of the laser intensity,and the other two factors both play non-negligible roles.Our results provide a deeper insight to the recent experiments of Coulomb asymmetry[Shafir D,et al.,2013 Phys.Rev.Lett.111 023005 and Li M,et al,2013 Phys.Rev.Lett.111 023006].

Decoding the electron dynamics in high-order harmonic generation from asymmetric molecular ions in elliptically polarized laser fields

The high-order harmonic generation from an asymmetric molecular ion is theoretically investigated based on the Born-Oppenheimer model with two-dimensional electron dynamics.It is shown that the harmonic intensity changes periodically in elliptically polarized laser fields.The periodical character is ellipticity-dependent.By establishing the physical image,the periodicity of the harmonic intensity can be ascribed to the contributions of the ground state and the excited state.Furthermore,the electron dynamics from different electronic states can be selected via combining the elliptically polarized laser field with a static electric field.The harmonics dominated either by ground state or excited state are emitted once in an optical cycle in the combined laser field.

Relative phase effect of nonsequential double ionization in Ar by two-color elliptically polarized laser field

We investigated the nonsequential double ionization(NSDI)in Ar by two-color elliptically polarized laser field with a three-dimensional(3D)classical ensemble method.We study the relative phase effect of NSDI and distinguish two particular recollision channels in NSDI,which are recollision–impact ionization(RII)and recollision-induced excitation with subsequent ionization(RESI),according to the delay-time between the recollision and the final double ionization.The numerical results indicate that the ion momentum distribution is changed and the triangle structure is more obvious with the decrease of the relative phase.We also demonstrate that the RESI process always dominates in the whole double ionization process and the ratio of RESI and RII channels can be influenced by the relative phase.

Elliptically polarized high-order harmonic generation of Ar atom in an intense laser field

High-order harmonic generation(HHG) of Ar atom in an elliptically polarized intense laser field is experimentally investigated in this work.Interestingly,the anomalous ellipticity dependence on the laser ellipticity(ε) in the lower-order harmonics is observed,specifically in the 13rd-order,which displays a maximal harmonic intensity at ε ≈ 0.1,rather than at ε = 0 as expected.This contradicts the general trend of harmonic yield,which typically decreases with the increase of laser ellipticity.In this study,we attribute this phenomenon to the disruption of the symmetry of the wave function by the Coulomb effect,leading to the generation of a harmonic with high ellipticity.This finding provides valuable insights into the behavior of elliptically polarized harmonics and opens up a potential way for exploring new applications in ultrafast spectroscopy and light–matter interactions.

Dynamical analysis of the effect of elliptically polarized laser pulses on molecular alignment and orientation

In this Letter, we study the molecular alignment and orientation driven by two elliptically polarized laser pulses.It is shown that the field-free molecular alignment can be achieved in a three-dimensional（3D） case, while the field-free molecular orientation is only along the x and y directions, and that the field-free alignment and orientation along different axes are related to the populations of the rotational states. It is demonstrated that changing the elliptic parameter is efficient for controlling both in-pulse and post-pulse molecular alignment and orientation. The delay time also has an influence on the field-free molecular alignment and orientation.

Manipulation of Spontaneous Emission via Quantum Interference in an Elliptically Polarized Laser Field

Manipulation of spontaneous emission from an atom confined in three kinds of modified reservoirs has been investigated by means of an elliptically polarized laser field. Some interesting phenomena such as the multi-peak structure, extreme spectral narrowing, and cancellation of spontaneous emission can be observed by adjusting controllable system parameters. Moreover, these phenomena depend on the constructive or destructive quantum interference between multiple decay channels and which can be changed appreciably by varying the phase difference between the two circularly polarized components of the probe field. These results demonstrate the importance of an elliptially polarized laser field in controlling the spontaneous emission and its potential applications in high-precision spectroscopy.

Photoelectron momentum distributions of single-photon ionization under a pair of elliptically polarized attosecond laser pulses

The attosecond ionization dynamics of atoms has attracted extensive attention in these days.However,the role of the initial state is not clearly understood.To address this question,we perform simulations on the neon atom and its model atom with different initial states by numerically solving the corresponding two-dimensional time-dependent Schrodinger¨equations.We theoretically investigate atomic photoelectron momentum distributions(PMDs)by a pair of elliptically polarized attosecond laser pulses.We find that the PMD is sensitive not only to the ellipticities of the pulses,the relative helicity,and time delay of the pulses,but also to the symmetry of the initial electronic states.Results are analyzed by the first-order time-dependent perturbation theory(TDPT)and offer a new tool for detecting the rotation direction of the ring currents.

Controlling Three-Dimensional Electron-Electron Correlation via Elliptically Polarized Intense Laser Field

The three-dimensional electron-electron correlation in an elliptically polarized laser field is investigated based on a semiclassical model. Asymmetry parameter α of the correlated electron momentum distribution is used to quantitatively describe the electron-electron correlation. The dependence of α on elliptieity e is totally different in three directions. For the z direction （maJor polarization direction）, α first increases and reaches a maximum at ε = 0.275, then it decreases quickly. For the y direction in which the laser field is always absent, the ellipticity has a minor effect, and the asymmetry parameter fluctuates around α = -0.15. However, for the x direction （minor polarization direction）, α increases monotonously with ellipticity though starts from the same value as in the y direction when ε = 0. The behavior of α in the x direction actually indicates a transformation from the Coulomb interaction dominated correlation to the laser field dominated correlation. Therefore, our work provides an efficient way to control the three-dimensional electron electron correlation via an elliptically polarized intense laser field.

Investigation of vortex arms in electron vortices by counter-rotating elliptically polarized attosecond laser pulses

We theoretically investigate the vortex patterns in photoelectron momentum distributions of He^(+)driven by counter-rotating elliptically polarized,time delayed attosecond laser pulses by numerically solving the two-dimensional time-dependent Schrodinger equation.It is found that the number of vortex arms is extremely sensitive to the ellipticity and wavelength of counterrotating elliptically polarized laser pulses,which is illustrated by the attosecond perturbation ionization models.In addition,the effect of different time delays between two pulses on the interference patterns is also investigated and the corresponding physical mechanism is demonstrated.Since the wavelength,ellipticity and time delay have a significant effect on the vortex interference patterns,this may be a new method for laser field detection.