Abstract

By controlling the electric field of strong laser pulses wave packets created by field ionization can be steered in space and time and can be used to coherently probe the parent ion on the attosecond and angstrom scale. In addition to the actual photon or electron emission signal caused by the probe, two important processes influence the observed result: (i) ionization and (ii) wave packet propagation due to the combined force of the laser electric field and the ionic binding potential. The ionic Coulomb potential is often considered only a weak perturbation to the dominant driving force of the laser field. Quantitative statements, however, can only be made when the influence of the ionic long range Coulomb potential is properly accounted for [1-3].

© 2011 Optical Society of America