Laser-sub-cycle fragmentation dynamics of argon dimers

Abstract

The goals of this work are to obtain insight into laser-driven electron recapture processes on laser-sub-cycle time-scales. These electron recapture processes in strong laser fields, also known as frustrated tunneling ionization (FTI), have been the subject of a number of studies. However, the mechanisms leading to this process are still not completely understood. Since it has been shown that the recapturing process can be explained in the context of electron rescattering, it should be sensitive to the sub-cycle evolution of the laser electric field and consequently depend on the carrier envelope phase (CEP) for few-cycle pulses. Using the laser field as a sub-cycle temporal reference should therefore allow obtaining insight into the trapping dynamics.