Jan Marcus Dahlström

Bone scintigraphy in chronic knee pain: comparison with magnetic resonance imaging

OBJECTIVE To compare increased bone uptake of 99Tcm-MDP and magnetic resonance (MR) detected subchondral lesions, osteophytes, and cartilage defects in the knee in middle aged people with longstanding knee pain. METHODS Fifty eight people (aged 41–58 years, mean 50) with chronic knee pain, with or without radiographic knee osteoarthritis, were examined with bone scintigraphy. The pattern and the grade of increased bone uptake was assessed. On the same day, a MR examination on a 1.0 T imager was performed. The presence and the grade of subchondral lesions, osteophytes, and cartilage defects were registered. RESULTS The κ values describing the correlation between increased bone uptake and MR detected subchondral lesions varied between 0.79 and 0.49, and between increased bone uptake and MR detected osteophytes or cartilage defects the values were <0.54. The κ values describing the correlation between the grade of bone uptake and the grade of the different MR findings was <0.57. CONCLUSIONS Good agreement was found between increased bone uptake and MR detected subchondral lesion. The agreement between increased bone uptake and osteophytes or cartilage defects was in general poor as well as the agreement between the grade of bone uptake and the grade of the MR findings.

Efficient high-order harmonic generation boosted by below-threshold harmonics.

High-order harmonic generation (HHG) in gases has been established as an important technique for the generation of coherent extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulses at ultrashort time scales. Its main drawback, however, is the low conversion efficiency, setting limits for many applications, such as ultrafast coherent imaging, nonlinear processes in the XUV range, or seeded free electron lasers. Here we introduce a novel scheme based on using below-threshold harmonics, generated in a “seeding cell”, to boost the HHG process in a “generation cell”, placed further downstream in the focused laser beam. By modifying the fundamental driving field, these low-order harmonics alter the ionization step of the nonlinear HHG process. Our dual-cell scheme enhances the conversion efficiency of HHG, opening the path for the realization of robust intense attosecond XUV sources.

Quantum mechanical approach to probing the birth of attosecond pulses using a two-colour field

We investigate the generation of even and odd harmonics using an intense laser and a weak second harmonic field. Our theoretical approach is based on solving the saddle-point equations within the strong field approximation. The phase of the even harmonic oscillation as a function of the delay between the fundamental and second harmonic field is calculated and its variation with energy is found to be in good agreement with recent experimental results. We also find that the relationship between this phase variation and the group delay of the attosecond pulses depends on the intensity and wavelength of the fundamental field as well as the ionization potential of the atom.

Spectral phase measurement of a Fano resonance using tunable attosecond pulses.

Electron dynamics induced by resonant absorption of light is of fundamental importance in nature and has been the subject of countless studies in many scientific areas. Above the ionization threshold of atomic or molecular systems, the presence of discrete states leads to autoionization, which is an interference between two quantum paths: direct ionization and excitation of the discrete state coupled to the continuum. Traditionally studied with synchrotron radiation, the probability for autoionization exhibits a universal Fano intensity profile as a function of excitation energy. However, without additional phase information, the full temporal dynamics cannot be recovered. Here we use tunable attosecond pulses combined with weak infrared radiation in an interferometric setup to measure not only the intensity but also the phase variation of the photoionization amplitude across an autoionization resonance in argon. The phase variation can be used as a fingerprint of the interactions between the discrete state and the ionization continua, indicating a new route towards monitoring electron correlations in time.

Measurements of relative photoemission time delays in noble gas atoms

We determine relative photoemission time delays between valence electrons in different noble gas atoms (Ar, Ne and He) in an energy range between 31 and 37 eV. The atoms are ionized by an attosecond pulse train synchronized with an infrared laser field and the delays are measured using an interferometric technique. We compare our results with calculations using the random phase approximation with exchange and multi-configurational Hartree-Fock. We also investigate the influence of the different ionization angular channels.

Spectral shaping of attosecond pulses using two-colour laser fields

We use a strong two-colour laser field composed of the fundamental (800 nm) and the second harmonic (400 nm) of an infrared (IR) laser field to generate attosecond pulses with controlled spectral and temporal properties. With a second-harmonic intensity equal to 15% of the IR intensity the second-harmonic field is strong enough to significantly alter and control the electron trajectories in the generation process. This enables us to tune the central photon energy of the attosecond pulses by changing the phase difference between the IR and the second-harmonic fields. In the time domain the radiation is emitted as a sequence of pulses separated by a full IR cycle. We also perform calculations showing that the effect of even stronger second-harmonic fields leads to an extended tunable range under conditions that are experimentally feasible.

Photoionization in the time and frequency domain

Resetting the clock on photoemission The ability to produce attosecond pulses of light provides access to some of the fastest electronic processes occurring within atoms. Tracking the temporal dynamics of the photoemission process in which an atom absorbs a high-energy photon and the electron escapes has exposed a discrepancy between the initial experimental findings and subsequent theoretical modeling. Isinger et al. present an ultrafast process that can account for and distinguish the different contributions to the photoemission processes in neon atoms. The findings reveal an “electron shake-up” process that may explain the discrepancy, bringing closure to a 7-year discussion. Science, this issue p. 893 An ultrafast technique is developed that can disentangle the different processes in photoionization. Ultrafast processes in matter, such as the electron emission after light absorption, can now be studied using ultrashort light pulses of attosecond duration (10−18 seconds) in the extreme ultraviolet spectral range. The lack of spectral resolution due to the use of short light pulses has raised issues in the interpretation of the experimental results and the comparison with theoretical calculations. We determine photoionization time delays in neon atoms over a 40–electron volt energy range with an interferometric technique combining high temporal and spectral resolution. We spectrally disentangle direct ionization from ionization with shake-up, in which a second electron is left in an excited state, and obtain excellent agreement with theoretical calculations, thereby solving a puzzle raised by 7-year-old measurements.

Multiconfigurational Hartree-Fock close-coupling ansatz : Application to the argon photoionization cross section and delays

We present a robust, ab initio method for addressing atom-light interactions and apply it to photoionization of argon. We use a close-coupling ansatz constructed on a multiconfigurational Hartree-Fock description of localized states and B-spline expansions of the electron radial wave functions. In this implementation, the general many-electron problem can be tackled thanks to the use of the ATSP2K libraries [C. Froese Fischer et al., Comput. Phys. Commun. 176, 559 (2007)]. In the present contribution, we combine this method with exterior complex scaling, thereby allowing for the computation of the complex partial amplitudes that encode the whole dynamics of the photoionization process. The method is validated on the 3s3p(6)np series of resonances converging to the 3s extraction. Then, it is used for computing the energy dependent differential atomic delay between 3p and 3s photoemission, and agreement is found with the measurements of Guenot et al. [Phys. Rev. A 85, 053424 (2012)]. The effect of the presence of resonances in the one-photon spectrum on photoionization delay measurements is studied. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.87.023420

Study of attosecond delays using perturbation diagrams and exterior complex scaling

We describe in detail how attosecond delays in laser-assisted photoionization can be computed using perturbation theory based on two-photon matrix elements. Special emphasis is laid on above-threshold ionization, where the electron interacts with an infrared field after photoionization by an extreme ultraviolet field. Correlation effects are introduced using diagrammatic many-body theory to the level of the random-phase approximation with exchange. Our aim is to provide an ab initio route to correlated multi-photon processes that are required for an accurate description of experiments on the attosecond time scale. Here, our results are focused on photoionization of the M-shell of argon atoms, where experiments have been carried out using the so-called reconstruction of attosecond beating by the two-photon interference transitions technique. An influence of autoionizing resonances in attosecond delay measurements is observed. Further, it is shown that the delay depends on both detection angle of the photoelectron and energy of the probe photon.

Diagrammatic approach to attosecond delays in photoionization

We study laser-assisted photoionization by attosecond pulses using a time-independent formalism based on diagrammatic many-body perturbation theory. Our aim is to provide an ab initio route to the delays for this above-threshold ionization process, which is essential for a quantitative understanding of attosecond metrology. We present correction curves for characterization schemes of attosecond pulses, such as streaking, that account for the delayed atomic response in ionization from neon and argon. We also verify that photoelectron delays from many-electron atoms can be measured using similar schemes if, instead, the so-called continuum-continuum delay is subtracted. Our method is general and it can be extended also to more complex systems and additional correlation effects can be introduced systematically. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.86.061402