We consider inelastic collisions between relativistic electrons and atomic targets assisted by a low-frequency laser field in the case when this field is still much weaker than the typical internal fields in the target. Concentrating on target transitions we show that they can be substantially affected by the presence of the laser field. This may occur either via strong modifications in the motion of the relativistic electrons caused by the electron-laser interaction or via the Compton effect when the incident electrons convert laser photon(s) into photons with frequencies equal to target transition frequencies.
We investigate the laser-assisted single XUV photon double ionization of ground state helium. By solving full six-dimensional time-dependent schr{ö}dinger equation, we study the correlation and angular distribution. The discussion in joint energy and angular distributions reveals the competition in odd and even parity double ionization processes in the presence of weak laser field. The emission angle between two photoelectrons can be adjusted by the laser parameters. We depicts how the laser field enhance and/or enable the back-to-back and side-by-side emission of double ionization.
New insights into our understanding of the semirelativistic excitation of atomic hydrogen by electronic impact have been made possible by combining the use of polarized electron beams and intense laser field. The paper reviews relativistic theoretical treatment in laser-assisted electron scattering with particular emphasis upon spin effects. Different spin configurations for inelastic electron-atom collisions is also discussed. The role of laser field in such collision is of major importance and reveals new information on the dynamics of the collision process. The examined modern theoretical i…
A new version of the R-matrix Floquet theory for laser-assisted electron-atom scattering is presented. The theory is non-perturbative and applicable to a non-relativistic many-electron atom or ion in a homogeneous linearly polarized field. It is based on the use of channel functions built from field-dressed target states, which greatly simplifies the general formalism.
We present a theoretical analysis of high-order harmonic generation from ion-atom collisions in the presence of linearly polarized intense laser pulses. Photons with frequencies significantly higher than in standard atomic high-harmonic generation are emitted. These harmonics are due to two different mechanisms: (i) collisional electron capture and subsequent laser-driven transfer of an electron between projectile and target atom; (ii) reflection of a laser-driven electron from the projectile leading to recombination at the parent atom.
We introduce a new method that allows one to obtain an analytical cross section for the laser-assisted electron-ion collision in a closed form. As an example we perform a calculation for the hydrogen laser-assisted recombination. The $S$-matrix element for the process is constructed from an exact electron Coulomb-Volkov wave function and an approximate laser modified hydrogen state. An explicit expression for the field-enhancement coefficient of the process is expressed in terms of the dimensionless parameter $κ= |{eε_{0}}/{qω_{0}}|^{2}$, where $e$ and $q$ are the electron charge and momentum …
Intense, 100 fs laser pulses at 3.2 and 3.6 um are used to generate, by multi-photon ionization, broadband wave packets with up to 400 eV of kinetic energy and charge states up to Xe+6. The multiple ionization pathways are well described by a white electron wave packet and field-free inelastic cross sections, averaged over the intensity-dependent energy distribution for (e,ne) electron impact ionization. The analysis also suggests a contribution from a 4d core excitation in xenon.
Laser assisted Coulomb scattering by relativistic electron and heavy electron (muon) is studied by using Salamin waves (Salamin 1993) in the Weak Field Approximation (WFA). Both electron and muon are described by the Dirac equation, with the anomalous magnetic moment effects fully included. The generalization of this paper to heavy electron (muon) gives interesting insights as to how the mass affects the magnitude of the differential cross sections. No significant difference in the muon's DCS with and without AMM effects was detected.
The Thomas--Reiche--Kuhn sum rule is used to form an effective potential that is added to the time-dependent configuration interaction singles (TDCIS) equations of motion in velocity gauge. The purpose of the effective potential is to include virtual coupling from singles to doubles, which is required for size-consistent velocity gauge TDCIS results. The proposed method is compared to length gauge TDCIS results for laser-assisted photoionization. Finally, a novel dynamical interference effect controlled by two-color fields is predicted for atomic targets.
Two-photon free-free transitions in elastic laser-assisted electron-hydrogen collisions are studied in the domain of high scattering energies and low or moderate field intensities, in the third order of perturbation theory, taking into account all the involved Feynman diagrams. Based on the analytical expressions of the transition amplitudes, the differential cross sections for two-photon absorption/emission are computed at impact energy $E_i=100$ eV. The effect of field polarizations on the angular distribution and on the frequency dependence of the differential cross section is analyzed.
The magnetic-field effect of the laser pulse is investigated in laser-assisted XUV ionization. By numerically solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation, we find that the photoelectron momentum distribution is distorted by the magnetic-field effect of the IR streaking field. It results in a transverse-momentum- and time-delay-dependent longitudinal photoelectron momentum shift, which is further analytically confirmed by employing the nondipole corrected strong field approximation. We also demonstrate that the magnetic field does not affect the time shift retrieved from t…
The dynamics of the electron impact multiphoton ionization of a hydrogen atom in the presence of an intense laser field has been studied theoretically, with a view to comparing (qualitatively) the results with the recent kinematically complete experiments of Horr et al [ Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 94, 153201, (2005) ] for the He target. Significant laser modifications are noted in the present doubly (DDCS) and the fully differential cross sections (TDCS). For most of the explored kinematics (chosen in accordance with the experiment), the present binary peak intensity of the laser-assisted TDCS is …
Magnetic field sensing provides crucial insights into various geophysical phenomena such as atmospheric currents, crustal magnetism, and oceanic circulation. In this paper, a method for remote detection of magnetic fields using mesospheric sodium with an assisting satellite is proposed. Sodium atoms in the mesosphere are optically pumped with a ground-based laser beam. A satellite-borne detector is used to measure magneto-optical rotation of the polarization of a probe laser beam by the sodium atoms. This sensitive magnetometry method benefits from direct detection of laser photons and complem…
We present a theoretical study on the recombination of a free electron into the ground state of a hydrogen-like ion in the presence of an external laser field. Emphasis is placed on the effects caused by the laser dressing of the residual ionic bound state. To investigate how this dressing affects the total and angle-differential cross section of laser assisted radiative recombination (LARR) we apply first-order perturbation theory and the separable Coulomb-Volkov-continuum ansatz. Using this approach detailed calculations were performed for low-$Z$ hydrogen like ions and laser intensities in …
The interplay of x-ray ionization and atomic and nuclear degrees of freedom is investigated theoretically in the process of laser-assisted nuclear excitation by electron capture. In the resonant process of nuclear excitation by electron capture, an incident electron recombines into a vacancy in the atomic shell with simultaneous nuclear excitation. Here we investigate the specific scenario in which the free electron and the required atomic shell hole are generated by an x-ray free electron laser pulse. We develop a theoretical description based on the Feshbach projection operator formalism and…
We study the impact of double and triple scattering contributions on coherent backscattering of laser light from saturated isotropic atoms, in the helicity preserving polarization channel. Using the recently proposed diagrammatic pump-probe approach, we analytically derive single-atom spectral responses to a classical polychromatic driving field, combine them self-consistently to double and triple scattering processes, and numerically deduce the corresponding elastic and inelastic spectra, as well as the total backscattered intensities. We find that account of the triple scattering contributio…
Nonsequential double ionization (NSDI) of helium in an intense few-cycle laser pulse is investigated by applying the three-dimensional semi-classical re-scattering method. It is found that the momentum distribution of He$^{2+}$ shows a single-double-single peak structure as the pulse intensity increases. According to the different mechanisms dominating the NSDI process, the laser intensity can be classified into three regimes where the momentum distribution of He$^{2+}$ exhibits different characteristics. In the relatively high intensity regime, an NSDI mechanism named the "laser-assisted coll…
Within the framework of the coplanar binary geometry where it is justified to use plane wave solutions for the study of the $(e,2e)$ reaction and in the presence of a circularly polarized laser field, we introduce as a first step the DVRPWBA1 (Dirac-Volkov Plane Wave Born Approximation1) where we take into account only the relativistic dressing of the incident and scattered electrons. Then, we introduce the DVRPWBA2 (Dirac-Volkov Plane Wave Born Approximation2) where we take totally into account the relativistic dressing of the incident, scattered and ejected electrons. We then compare the cor…
We experimentally implement the Harper Hamiltonian for neutral particles in optical lattices using laser-assisted tunneling and a potential energy gradient provided by gravity or magnetic field gradients. This Hamiltonian describes the motion of charged particles in strong magnetic fields. Laser-assisted tunneling processes are characterized by studying the expansion of the atoms in the lattice. The band structure of this Hamiltonian should display Hofstadter's butterfly. For fermions, this scheme should realize the quantum Hall effect and chiral edge states.
Proton emission from nuclei via the nuclear photoeffect in the combined electromagnetic fields of a gamma-ray photon and an intense laser wave is studied. An S-matrix approach to the process is developed by utilizing methods known from the theory of nonperturbative laser-atom interactions. As a specific example, photo-proton ejection from halo nuclei is considered. We show that, due to the presence of the laser field, rich sideband structures arise in the photo-proton energy spectra. Their dependence on the parameters and relative orientation of the photon fields is discussed.
A time-resolved spectroscopic protocol exploiting terahertz-assisted photoionization is proposed to reconstruct transient density matrix. Population and coherence elements are effectively mapped onto spectrally separated peaks in photoionization spectra. The beatings of coherence dynamics can be temporally resolved beyond the pulse duration, and the relative phase between involved states is directly readable from the oscillatory spectral distribution. As demonstrated by a photo-excited multilevel open quantum system, the method shows potential applications for sub-femtosecond time-resolved mea…
Electron-impact ionization of atomic hydrogen with the electron's anomalous mag- netic moment (AMM) effects are examined. The formulas for the laser-assisted relativis- tic triple differential cross section (TDCS) in the coplanar binary geometry developed earlier by Y. Attaourti and S. Taj [Phys. Rev. A 69, 063411 (2004)] are used to check the consistency of our computations when the anomaly $κ$ is taken to be zero. We show that the contribution of the terms containing the AMM effects even in the first Born approximation has an important contribution, so it must be included in any reliable ana…
We investigate the angle-resolved photoelectron spectra from laser-assisted photoionization for helium and neon atoms using an \textit{ab initio} method based on time-dependent surface flux and configuration interaction singles. We find that the shape of the distributions can be interpreted using a propensity rule, an intrinsic difference in the absorption and emission processes, as well as interference effects between multiple paths to the final angular momentum state. In neon we find that the difference between absorption and emission is hidden in the first sideband due to the multiple compe…
We present a theoretical study of atomic laser-assisted photoionization emission (LAPE). We consider an atom driven by a linearly polarized XUV laser in two different scenarios: i) a single attosecond pulse (in both the streaking and sideband regimes) and ii) an attosecond pulse train. The process takes place assisted by a linearly polarized infrared (IR) laser field. In all these cases the energy and angle-resolved photoelectron spectrum (PES) is determined by a leading contribution, related to the intracycle factor [Gramajo et al., J. Phys. B 51, 055603 (2018)], complemented by other ones, d…
We apply the convergent close-coupling (CCC) formalism to analyse the processes of laser assisted electron impact ionisation of He, and the attosecond time delay in the photodetachment of the H^{-} ion and the photoionisation of He. Such time dependent atomic collision processes are of considerable interest as experimental measurements on the relevant timescale (attoseconds 10^{-18} s) are now possible utilising ultrafast and intense laser pulses. These processes in particular are furthermore of interest as they are strongly influenced by many-electron correlations. In such cases their theoret…
It is generally assumed that for ionization processes, which occur in slow atomic collisions, the coupling of the colliding system to the quantum radiation field is irrelevant. Here we show, however, that -- contrary to expectations -- such a coupling can strongly influence ionization of a beam of atomic species A slowly traversing a gas of atomic species B excited by a weak laser field. Moreover, this coupling becomes even more important when the collision velocity increases, getting comparable or exceeding the typical electron orbiting velocities in A and B. Our results imply furthermore tha…
We study laser-assisted photodetachment time delays by attosecond pulse trains from the closed-shell negative ions F- and Cl-. We investigate the separability of the delay into two contributions: (i) the Wigner-like delay associated with one-photon ionization by the attosecond pulse train and (ii) the delay associated with exchange of an additional laser photon in the presence of the potential of the remaining target. Based on the asymptotic form of the wave packet, the latter term is expected to be negligible because the ion is neutralized leading to a vanishing laser-ion interaction with inc…
Rescattering effects in nonresonant spontaneous laser-assisted electron-atom bremsstrahlung (LABrS) are analyzed within the framework of time-dependent effective-range (TDER) theory. It is shown that high energy LABrS spectra exhibit rescattering plateau structures that are similar to those that are well-known in strong field laser-induced processes as well as those that have been predicted theoretically in laser-assisted collision processes. In the limit of a low-frequency laser field, an analytic description of LABrS is obtained from a rigorous quantum analysis of the exact TDER results for …
In the presence of an intensive laser field the radiative recombination of the continuum electron into an atomic bound state generally is accompanied by absorption or emission of several laser quanta. The spectrum of emitted photons represents an equidistant pattern with the spacing equal to the laser frequency. The distribution of intensities in this spectrum is studied employing the Keldysh-type approximation, i.e. neglecting interaction of the impact electron with the atomic core in the initial continuum state. Within the adiabatic approximation the scale of emitted photon frequencies is su…
Electron-argon scattering in the presence of a linearly polarized, low frequency laser field is studied theoretically. The scattering geometries of interest are small angles where momentum transfer is nearly perpendicular to the field, which is where the Kroll-Watson approximation has the potential to break down. The Floquet R matrix method solves the velocity gauge Schrödinger equation, using a larger reaction volume than previous treatments in order to carefully assess the importance of the long range polarization potential to the cross section. A comparison of the cross sections calculated …
We discuss the coupling of the motion of two ion species in separate Penning traps via a common tank circuit. The enhancement of the coupling assisted by the tank circuit is demonstrated by an avoided crossing behavior measurement of the motional modes of two coupled ions. We propose an intermittent laser cooling method for sympathetic cooling and provide a theoretical description. The technique enables tuning of the coupling strength between two ion species in separate traps and thus allows for efficient sympathetic cooling of an arbitrary type of single ion for high-precision Penning-trap ex…
We report on the demonstration of Doppler-free polarization spectroscopy of the D2 line of 6Li atoms. Counterintuitively, the presence of an Ar buffer gas, in a certain pressure range, causes a drastic enhancement of the polarization rotation signal. The observed dependence of the signal amplitude on the Ar buffer pressure and the pump laser power is reproduced by calculations based on simple rate equations. We performed stable laser frequency locking using a dispersion signal obtained by polarization spectroscopy for laser cooling of 6Li atoms.
Laser-induced nuclear recollisions following $α$ decay in the presence of an intense laser field are investigated theoretically. We show that while an intense optical laser does not influence notably the tunneling rate in $α$ decay, it can completely change the $α$ particle spectrum. For intensities of $10^{22}-10^{23}$ W/cm$^{2}$, the field is strong enough to induce recollisions between the emitted $α$ particle and the daughter nucleus. The energy gained by the $α$ particle in the field can reach 20 MeV and suffice to trigger several types of nuclear reactions on a femtosecond time scale. Si…
The scattering of a positron by a muon in the presence of a linearly polarized laser field is investigated in the first Born approximation. The theoretical results reveals: 1) at large scattering angle, an amount of multiphoton processes take place in the course of scattering. The photon emission processes predominant the photon absorption ones. 2) Some nonlinear phenomena about oscillations, dark angular windows, and asymmetry can be observed in angular distributions. We analyze the reason giving rise to dark windows and geometric asymmetry initially noted in the potential scattering. 3) we a…
The Compton scattering of X-ray photons, assisted by a short intense optical laser pulse, is discussed. The differential scattering cross section reveals the interesting feature that the main Klein-Nishina line is accompanied by a series of side-lines forming a broad plateau where up to ${\cal O} (10^3)$ laser photons participate simultaneously in a single scattering event. An analytic formula for the width of the plateau is given. Due to the non-linear mixing of X-ray and laser photons a frequency dependent rotation of the polarization of the final state X-ray photons relative to the scatteri…
The effects of intense electromagnetic fields on the decay of quasistationary states are investigated theoretically. We focus on the parameter regime of strong laser fields and nonlinear effects where an essentially nonperturbative description is required. Our approach is based on the imaginary time method previously introduced in the theory of strong-field ionization. Spectra and total decay rates are presented for a test case and the results are compared with exact numerical calculations. The potential of this method is confirmed by good quantitative agreement with the numerical results.
The assistance of an intense optical laser pulse on electron-positron pair production by the Breit-Wheeler and Schwinger processes in XFEL fields is analyzed. The impact of a laser beam on high-energy photon collisions with XFEL photons consists in a phase space redistribution of the pairs emerging in the Breit-Wheeler sub-process. We provide numerical examples of the differential cross section for parameters related to the European XFEL. Analogously, the Schwinger type pair production in pulsed fields with oscillating components referring to a superposition of optical laser and XFEL frequenci…
The strong coupling between two autoionizing states in helium is studied theoretically with the pump-probe scheme. An isolated 100-as XUV pulse is used to excite helium near the 2s2p(1P) resonance state in the presence of an intense infrared (IR) laser. The laser field introduces strong coupling between 2s2p(1P) and 2p^2(1S) states. The IR also can ionize helium from both autoionizing states. By changing the time delay between the XUV and the IR pulses, we investigated the photoelectron spectra near the two resonances. The results are used to explain the recent experiment by Gilbertson et al. …
Laser-assisted electron scattering (LAES), a light-matter interaction process that facilitates energy transfer between strong light fields and free electrons, has so far been observed only in gas phase. Here we report on the observation of LAES at condensed phase particle densities, for which we create nano-structured systems consisting of a single atom or molecule surrounded by a superfluid He shell of variable thickness (32-340 angstrom). We observe that free electrons, generated by femtosecond strong-field ionization of the core particle, can gain several tens of photon energies due to mult…
In this paper, the spontaneous bremsstrahlung emission from an electron scattered by two fixed nuclei in an intense laser field is investigated in details based upon the Volkov state and the Dirac-Volkov propagator. It has been found that the fundamental harmonic spectrum from the electron radiation exhibits distinctive fringes, which is dependent not only upon the internucleus distance and orientation, but also upon the initial energy of the electron and the laser intensity. By analyzing the differential cross section, we are able to explain these effects in terms of interference among the el…
The excitation of H ($1s-2s$) by electron impact in the presence and in the absence of the laser field is studied in the framework of the first Born approximation. The angular variation of the laser-assisted differential cross section (DCS) for atomic hydrogen by electronic impact is presented at various kinetic energies for the incident electron. The use of Darwin wave function as a semirelativistic state to represent the atomic hydrogen gives interesting results when the condition $z/c\ll1$ is fulfilled. A comparison with the non relativistic theory and experimental data gives good agreement…
Relativistically-intense laser beam with large field gradient ("laser gate") enables strong inelastic scattering of electrons crossing the beam. This process allows for multi-MeV electron net acceleration per pass within the wavelength space. Inelastic scattering even in low-gradient laser field may also induce extremely tight temporal focusing and electron bunch formation down to quantum, zepto-second limit.
We propose a new type of Feshbach resonance occurring when two different ultracold atoms in their ground state undergo an s-wave collision in the presence of a continuous-wave laser light. The atoms collide in the dissociation continuum of the molecular electronic ground state which is coupled by the light to a rovibrational level of the same electronic ground state: we name this a Laser-Assisted Self-Induced Feshbach Resonance (LASIFR). This mechanism, valid for all polar molecules, is analyzed on the example of ultracold 87Rb and 84Sr atoms, for which the laser frequency falls in the THz ran…
We present a formalism for rigorous calculations of cross sections for inelastic and reactive collisions of ultracold atoms and molecules confined by laser fields in quasi-2D geometry. Our results show that the elastic-to-inelastic ratios of collision cross sections are enhanced in the presence of a laser confinement and that the threshold energy dependence of the collision cross sections can be tuned by varying the confinement strength and external magnetic fields. The enhancement of the elastic-to-inelastic ratios is inversely proportional to $\sqrt{ε/\hbar ω_0}$, where $ε$ is the kinetic en…
Cooling of molecules via free-space dissipative scattering of photons is thought not to be practicable due to the inherently large number of Raman loss channels available to molecules and the prohibitive expense of building multiple repumping laser systems. The use of an optical cavity to enhance coherent Rayleigh scattering into a decaying cavity mode has been suggested as a potential method to mitigate Raman loss, thereby enabling the laser cooling of molecules to ultracold temperatures. We discuss the possibility of cavity-assisted laser cooling particles without closed transitions, identif…
We study the ionization of atomic hydrogen in the direction of polarization due to a linearly polarized XUV pulse in the presence a strong field IR. We describe the photoelectron spectra as an interference problem in the time domain. Electron trajectories steming from different optical laser cycles give rise to intercycle interference energy peaks known as sidebands. These sidebands are modulated by a grosser structure coming from the intracycle interference of the two electron trajectories born during the same optical cycle. We make use of a simple semiclassical model which offers the possibi…
A theoretical model is developed describing high-order harmonic generation (HHG) from a gas of multiply-charged ions driven by a laser field of relativistic intensity. Macroscopic propagation of harmonics is investigated in a relativistic HHG setup where the relativistic drift is suppressed by means of x-ray field assistance of the driving laser field. The possibility of phase-matched emission of the harmonics is shown. The laser field geometry is optimized to maximize the HHG yield with the corresponding phase-matching schemes. Crucial issues determining the macroscopic HHG yield are discusse…
Laser cooling is theoretically investigated in a cascade three-level scheme, where the excited state of a laser-driven transition is coupled by a second laser to a top, more stable level, as for alkali-earth atoms. The second laser action modifies the atomic scattering cross section and produces temperatures lower than those reached by Doppler cooling on the lower transition. When multiphoton processes due to the second laser are relevant, an electromagnetic induced transparency modifies the absorption of the first laser, and the final temperature is controlled by the second laser parameters. …
The translational motion of molecular ions can be effectively cooled sympathetically to temperatures below 100 mK in ion traps through Coulomb interactions with laser-cooled atomic ions. The distribution of internal rovibrational states, however, gets in thermal equilibrium with the typically much higher temperature of the environment within tens of seconds. We consider a concept for rotational cooling of such internally hot, but translationally cold heteronuclear diatomic molecular ions. The scheme relies on a combination of optical pumping from a few specific rotational levels into a ``dark …
We have investigated photoionization of Ne$^+$ in the combined field of a short infra-red laser pulse and a delayed ultra-short pulse of the infra-red laser's 23$^r$$^d$ harmonic. We observe an ionization yield compatible with a picture in which one electron gets excited into Rydberg states by the harmonic laser field and is subsequently removed by the infra-red laser field. Modulations are seen in the ionization yield as a function of time delay. These modulations originate from the trapping of population in low members of the Rydberg series with different states being populated at different …
