Electron emission from metal surfaces by ultrashort pulses: determination of the carrier-envelope phase.
The phase varphi of the field oscillations with respect to the peak of a laser pulse influences the light field evolution as the pulse length becomes comparable to the wave cycle and, hence, affects the interaction of intense few-cycle pulses with matter. We theoretically investigate photoelectron emission induced by an intense, few-cycle laser pulse from a metal surface (jellium) within the framework of time-dependent density functional theory and find a pronounced varphi dependence of the photocurrent. Our results reveal a promising route to measuring varphi of few-cycle light pulses (tau<6 fs at lambda=0.8 microm) at moderate intensity levels (I(p) approximately 10(12) W/cm(2)) using a solid-state device.
Lemell
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C
Institute for Theoretical Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10, A-1040 Vienna, Austria. lemell@concord.itp.tuwien.ac.at
Tong
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XM
Krausz
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F
Burgdörfer
J
J