Abstract
Progress in femtosecond laser technology led to the production of laser pulses whose envelope varies on a time scale comparable to that of the electromagnetic field itself [1]. Such pulses consist of less than two optical cycles in FWHM. Under these conditions, the phase of the carrier frequency with respect to the envelope (absolute phase) determines the variation of the laser electric field in time. Since all effects in strong-field laser interaction are driven by the electromagnetic field of the laser, the absolute phase is important for many different topics in laser physics ranging from coherent control of chemical reactions and generation of attosecond pulses to photoionization, production of coherent soft X-rays and particle acceleration. Photoionization using intense laser pulses is characterized by the fact that an atom may absorb more photons than necessary for its ionization. The effect is known as above-threshold ionization (ATI). ATI has found applications for the characterization of few-cycle and attosecond pulses [2-3].
© 2002 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
G.G. Paulus, F. Grasbon, H. Walther, P. Villoresi, M. Nisoli, S. Stagira, E. Priori, and S. De Silvestri
CThT5 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO:S&I) 2002
Gerhard G. Paulus
JTuA3 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO:S&I) 2003
M. Nisoli, S. Stagira, E. Priori, G. Sansone, and S. De Silvestri
MA2 Nonlinear Optics: Materials, Fundamentals and Applications (NLO) 2002