Ionization of Rydberg wave packets by subpicosecond, half-cycle electromagnetic pulses

Control of Electron Wave Packets Close to the Continuum Threshold Using Near-Single-Cycle THz Waveforms

The control of low-energy electrons by carrier-envelope-phase-stable near-single-cycle THz pulses is demonstrated. A femtosecond laser pulse is used to create a temporally localized wave packet through multiphoton absorption at a well defined phase of a synchronized THz field. By recording the photoelectron momentum distributions as a function of the time delay, we observe signatures of various regimes of dynamics, ranging from recollision-free acceleration to coherent electron-ion scattering induced by the THz field. The measurements are confirmed by three-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation simulations. A classical trajectory model allows us to identify scattering phenomena analogous to strong-field photoelectron holography and high-order above-threshold ionization.

Characterization of 700 μJ T rays generated during high-power laser solid interaction

Laser-produced solid density plasmas are well-known as table-top sources of electromagnetic radiation. Recent studies have shown that energetic broadband terahertz pulses (T rays) can also be generated from laser-driven compact ion accelerators. Here we report the measurement of record-breaking T-Ray pulses with energies no less than 0.7 mJ. The terahertz spectrum has been characterized for frequencies ranging from 0.1-133 THz. The dependence of T-Ray yield on incident laser energy is linear and shows no tendencies of saturation. The noncollinear emission pattern and the high yield reveal that the T rays are generated by the transient field at the rear surface of the solid target.

T-Ray Sensing and Imaging

Terahertz (THz) radiation occupies part of the electromagnetic spectrum between the infrared and microwave bands. Until recently, technology at THz frequencies was under-developed compared to the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum, leaving a gap between millimeter waves and the far-infrared (FIR). In the past decade, interest in the THz gap has been increased by the development of ultrafast laser-based T-ray systems and their demonstration of diffraction-limited spatial resolution, picosecond temporal resolution, DC-THz spectral bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratios above 104.

This chapter reviews the development, the state of the art and the applications of T-ray spectrometers. Continuous-wave (CW) THz-frequency sources and detectors are briefly introduced in comparison to ultrafast pulsed THz systems. An emphasis is placed on experimental applications of T-rays to sensing and imaging, with a view to the continuing advance of technologies and applications in the THz band.

Creating and manipulating vortices in atomic wave functions with short electric field pulses

We demonstrate the creation of vortices in the electronic probability density of an atom subject to short electric field pulses, how these vortices evolve and can be manipulated by varying the applied pulses, and that they persist to macroscopic distances in the spectrum of ejected electrons. This opens the possibility to use practical femtosecond or shorter laser pulses to create and manipulate these vortex quasiparticles at the atomic scale and observe them in the laboratory. Within a hydrodynamic interpretation we also show, since the Schrödinger equation is a particular instance of the Navier-Stokes equations, that for compressible fluids vortices can appear spontaneously and with a certain time delay, which is not expected to occur from the conventional point of view, illustrating applicability of the present study to vortex formation more broadly.

Nondispersing Bohr wave packets

Long-lived, nondispersing circular, or Bohr, wave packets are produced starting from Li Rydberg atoms by exposing them first to a linearly polarized microwave field at the orbital frequency, 17.6 GHz at principal quantum number n=72, which locks the electron's motion into an approximately linear orbit in which the electron oscillates in phase with the microwave field. The microwave polarization is changed to circular polarization slowly compared to the orbital frequency, and the electron's motion follows, resulting in a nondispersing Bohr wave packet.

RYDBERG WAVEPACKETS IN MOLECULES: From Observation to Control

▪ Abstract  Significant advances in laser technology have led to an increasing interest in the time evolution of Rydberg wavepackets as a means to understanding, and ultimately controlling, quantum phenomena. Rydberg wavepackets in molecules are particularly interesting as they possess many of the dynamical complications of large molecules, such as nonadiabatic coupling between the various degrees of freedom, yet they remain tractable experimentally and theoretically. This review explains in detail how the method of interfering wavepackets can be applied to observe and control Rydberg wavepackets in molecules; it discusses the achievements to date and the possibilities for the future.

Time resolved Fano resonances

Recent advances in the generation of sub-fs extreme ultraviolet pulses and attosecond metrology have opened up the possibility to trace the time evolution of electronic wave packets inside atoms in pump-probe experiments. We investigate the feasibility of observing the buildup of a Fano resonance in the time domain by attosecond streaking techniques. A time-resolved resonance is initialized by a sub-fs extreme ultraviolet-pump pulse in the presence of a synchronized phase-controlled probe laser pulse. The time evolution of the coherent superposition of resonant state and continuum is mapped onto a modulation of the electron spectrum as a function of the time delay between pump and probe pulse. (super-)Coster-Kronig transitions with lifetimes of approximately 400 asec( are identified as prime candidates.

Active control of the dynamics of atoms and molecules

There has been much progress in the control of chemical reactions since methods of active control were first proposed by Brumer & Shapiro and by Tannor & Rice ten years ago. This chapter reviews both theoretical and experimental advances in the field. Control schemes based on quantum mechanical interference between competing paths and the manipulation of wave packets with tailored laser pulses are discussed. The theory of optimal control, the limitations of control theory applied to many-body dynamics, and the effects of constraints on the trajectory of the controlled observable are presented. Experimental progress in controlling the population of specific quantum states, in manipulating the dynamics of bound wave packets, and in the control of chemical reactions are reviewed, and current problems in the field are summarized.

Nondispersing wave packets

We have formed nondispersing wave packets from atomic Li Rydberg eigenstates by adding a small microwave field approximately resonant with the Deltan=1 transition. The orbital motion of the Rydberg electron in states of 70<or=n<or=78 becomes phase locked to a 17.5 GHz microwave field and remains so for 900 ns, roughly 15 000 orbits of the Rydberg electron. A Floquet approach provides a reasonable quantum-mechanical description.

Relativistic electron dynamics in intense crossed laser beams: acceleration and Compton harmonics

Electron motion and harmonic generation are investigated in the crossed-beam laser-accelerator scheme in a vacuum. Exact solutions of the equations of motion of the electron in plane-wave fields are given, subject to a restricted set of initial conditions. The trajectory solutions corresponding to axial injection are used to calculate precise emission spectra. Guided by hindsight from the analytic investigations, numerical calculations are then performed employing a Gaussian-beam representation of the fields in which terms of order epsilon(5), where epsilon is the diffraction angle, are retained. Present-day laser powers and initial conditions on the electron motion that simulate realistic laboratory conditions are used in the calculations. The analytic plane-wave work shows, and the numerical investigations confirm, that an optimal crossing angle exists, i.e., one that renders the electron energy gain a maximum for a particular set of parameters. Furthermore, the restriction to small crossing angles is not made anywhere. It is also shown that energy gains of a few GeV and energy gradients of several TeV/m may be obtained using petawatt power laser beams.

Brewster's angle attenuator for terahertz pulses

A variable attenuator for terahertz (THz) pulses is developed on the basis of the change in reflectivity of lithium niobate wafers with incident angle in a Brewster configuration. We can vary the THz field transmission from 22% to 54%, a change of a factor of 2.5, while preserving the shape of the THz pulse spectrum. Changes in the THz spectrum are shown to be much smaller when the Brewster attenuator is used than when either the near-infrared pump power or the bias voltage on a THz photoconductive antenna is varied. The Brewster attenuator should prove especially useful for varying THz field strength in nonlinear optical studies that use broadband THz pulses.

Quantum phase retrieval of a Rydberg wave packet using a half-cycle pulse

A terahertz half-cycle pulse was used to retrieve information stored as quantum phase in an N-state Rydberg atom data register. The register was prepared as a wave packet with one state phase reversed from the others (the "marked bit"). A half-cycle pulse then drove a significant portion of the electron probability into the flipped state via multimode interference.

Terahertz pulse propagation in the near field and the far field

We present a detailed investigation of the propagation properties of beams of ultrashort terahertz (THz) pulses emitted from large-aperture (LA) antennas. The large area of the emitter is demonstrated to have substantial influence on the temporal pulse profile in both the near field and the far field. We perform a numerical analysis based on scalar and vectorial broadband diffraction theory and are able to distinguish between near-field and far-field contributions to the total THz signal. We find that the THz beam from a LA antenna propagates like a Gaussian beam and that the temporal profile of the THz pulse, measured in the near field, contains information about the temporal and spatial field distribution on the emitter surface, which is intrinsically connected to the carrier dynamics of the antenna substrate. As a result of pulse reshaping, focusing of the THz beam leads to a reduced relative pulse momentum, with implications in THz field-ionization experiments.

Guiding electron orbits with chirped light

We demonstrate that chirped light is effective in shrinking or expanding a class of nonspreading electron eigenstate wave packets in Rydberg atoms.