Abstract
We have observed that the amount of photoionization from an atomic Rydberg state with a pulsed laser depends critically on the length of the pulse, whereas lowest-order perturbation theory implies that the yield depends only on the fluence (the integrated intensity) of the pulse. We have measured the yield for one-photon ionization with short (0.5–2.7-ps) high-intensity laser pulses from the 27d Rydberg state in barium. With equal fluence, the yield decreases for pulses shorter than the Kepler orbit time of the outer electron (2.2 ps) because not all of its wave function comes near the core during the length of the pulse. The observations and this classical picture are confirmed by quantum-mechanical calculations.
© 1994 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
J. H. Hoogenraad, R. B. Vrijen, and L. D. Noordam
WC7 High Resolution Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTS) 1994
J. H. Hoogenraad, R. B. Vrijen, L. D. Noordam, A. F. G. van der Meer, and P. W. van Amersfoort
QWE3 European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC) 1994
L. D. Noordam, J. H. Hoogenraad, R. B. Vrijen, A. F. G. van der Meer, and P. W. van Amersfoort
WC10 High Resolution Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTS) 1994