Abstract

In recent years the intensities used in multiphoton experiments have reached the order 10¹⁸ W/cm² :i.e. well above the intensity the rare gas neutral will be completely ionized. This has quite naturally led to interest in the harmonic generation of the ions produced. We have used a simple ID model of the single atom response to make predictions about the Harmonic generation, both from the neutrals and ions, as a function of intensity and wavelength. Our results consist of harmonic spectra and ionisation rates generated by intense, ultrashort pulses. We look at the response using pulses of length ~1ps with intensities in the range 10¹⁴ W/cm² to 10¹⁸ W/cm². We also look at the results as a function of laser frequency over the range 248nm (KrF) to 1054nm (YLF).

© 1994 Optical Society of America