We perform high harmonic generation spectroscopy of aligned nitrogen molecules to characterize the attosecond dynamics of multielectron rearrangement during strong-field ionization. We use the spectrum and ellipticity of the harmonic light to reconstruct the relative phase between different ionization continua participating in the ionization, and thus determine the shape and location of the hole left in the molecule by strong-field ionization. Our interferometric technique uses transitions between the ionic states, induced by the laser field on the subcycle time scale.

No abstract

No abstract

The interaction of atomic clusters with short, intense pulses of laser light to form extremely hot, dense plasmas has attracted extensive experimental and theoretical interest. The high density of atoms within the cluster greatly enhances the atom-laser interaction, while the finite size of the cluster prevents energy from escaping the interaction region. Recent technological advances have allowed experiments to probe the laser-cluster interaction at very high photon energies, with interactions much stronger than suggested by theories for lower photon energies. We present a model of the laser-cluster interaction which uses non-perturbative R-matrix techniques to calculate inverse bremsstrahlung and photoionization cross sections for Herman-Skillman atomic potentials. We describe the evolution of the cluster under the influence of the processes of inverse bremsstrahlung heating, photoionization, collisional ionization and recombination, and expansion of the cluster. We compare charge state distribution, charge state ejection energies, and total energy absorbed with the Hamburg experiment of Wabnitz et al. [Nature 420, 482 (2002)] and ejected electron spectra with Laarmann et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 063402 (2005)].