Per Johnsson

Frequency chirp of harmonic and attosecond pulses

We study the phase of the atomic polarization in the process of high-order harmonic generation. Its dependence on the laser intensity and the harmonic order induce a frequency variation in time (chirp) respectively of the harmonic pulses and attosecond pulses. We review the recent experimental results on the temporal characterization of the harmonic emission and show that measurements performed using very different techniques (like XFROG and RABITT), probing the phase in different parameter spaces, can be connected through the mixed phase derivatives, demonstrating the common underlying physics.

Angularly resolved electron wave packet interferences

We study experimentally the ionization of argon atoms by a train of attosecond pulses in the presence of a strong infrared laser field, using a velocity map imaging technique. The recorded momentum distribution strongly depends on the delay between the attosecond pulses and the laser field. We interpret the interference patterns observed for different delays using numerical and analytical calculations within the strong field approximation.

Trains of attosecond electron wave packets

We study temporally localized electron wave packets, generated using a train of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) attosecond pulses to ionize the target atoms. Both the electron wave packets and the attosecond pulse train (APT) are characterized using the same technique, based on interference of two-photon transitions in the continuum. We study, in particular, the energy transfer from a moderately strong infrared (IR) field to the electron wave packets as a function of time delay between the XUV and the IR fields. The use of an APT to generate the electron wave packets enables the generation at times not accessible through tunneling ionization. We find that a significant amount of energy is transferred from the IR field to the electron wave packets, when they are generated at a zero-crossing of the IR laser field. This energy transfer results in a dramatically enhanced above-threshold ionization even at IR intensities that alone are not strong enough to induce any significant ionization.