Measurement of ultrafast ionization dynamics of gases by multipulse interferometric frequency-resolved optical gating.
Ultrafast ionization dynamics of femtosecond laser-irradiated noble and simple diatomic gases were studied using a novel two-color time-domain technique which eliminated significant complications seen in past experiments. Ultrafast depletion of the probing laser pulse was observed strictly coincident with the ionization front and attributed to a previously unobserved nonlinear frequency mixing via the transverse plasma current [F. Brunel, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 7, 52 (1990)]. Good quantitative agreement of the measured single-atom ionization rates with Ammosov-Delone-Krainov rates was found, except for O (2) which showed a 200x smaller rate.
Siders
C W
CW
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Condensed Matter and Thermal Physics Group, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA. csiders@creol.ucf.edu
Rodriguez
G
G
Siders
J L
JL
Omenetto
F G
FG
Taylor
A J
AJ