Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 40: Interaction with strong or short laser pulses III

A 40.3: Talk

Thursday, March 20, 2014, 14:30–14:45, BEBEL E34

Strong-field Kapitza-Dirac Scattering of Neutral Atoms — •Sebastian Eilzer, Henri Zimmermann, and Ulli Eichmann — Max-Born-Institut for Nonlinear Optics und Short Pulse Spectroscopy, Berlin, Germany

Laser induced strong-field phenomena in atoms and molecules on the femtosecond time scale have been almost exclusively investigated with traveling wave fields. Most observed phenomena are well explained in the dipole approximation which, however, reduces the field to a purely electric field oscillating in time. Spatially dependent electromagnetic fields, e.g., in a standing light wave, allow for strong energy and momentum transfer. We report a strong-field version of the Kapitza-Dirac effect for neutral atoms where we scatter neutral He atoms in an intense short pulse standing light wave with femtosecond duration and intensities well in the strong-field tunneling regime. We observe substantial longitudinal momentum transfer concomitant with an unprecedented atomic photon scattering rate greater than 10¹⁶s⁻¹.