München 2004 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 42: Ultrakurze Lichtimpulse: Carrier-Envelope-Phase

Q 42.7: Talk

Thursday, March 25, 2004, 18:00–18:15, HS 223

Determination of the carrier-envelope phase of ultrashort laser pulses using metal surfaces — •C. Lemell¹, P. Dombi², X.-M. Tong³, F. Krausz², and J. Burgdörfer¹ — ¹Inst. f. Theoretical Physics, Vienna University of Technology — ²Photonics Inst., Vienna University of Technology — ³Dept. of Physics, Kansas State University

Many results of ultrashort-laser matter experiments strongly depend on the relative phase ϕ of the field oscillations with respect to the peak of the laser pulse. Until recently, determination of ϕ was limited by a ± π ambiguity and restricted to high-energy (≫ 1 µJ) pulses. Control mechanisms for pulses at moderate intensity levels were missing. Our simulations of ultrashort laser pulses interacting with metal surfaces based on time dependent density functional theory [1] indicate that photoemission from surfaces, especially in the multiphoton regime (I<10¹³ W/cm²), might be a promising candidate for measuring ϕ for pulse durations τ shorter than 10 fs. To better understand this surprising result we set up a classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulation of the process including photon absorption by conduction band electrons giving insight into the relative importance of underlying mechanisms. First experiments [2] support out predictions.
This work has been supported by Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung under project no. FWF-SFB016.

[1] C. Lemell et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 076403 (2003).

[2] A. Apolonsky et al., submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (2003).