Femtosecond light source for phase-controlled multiphoton ionization

Phys Rev Lett. 2001 Jul 16;87(3):033402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.033402. Epub 2001 Jun 29.

Abstract

We describe a femtosecond Raman light source with more than an octave of optical bandwidth. We use this source to demonstrate phase control of multiphoton ionization under conditions where ionization requires eleven photons of the lowest frequency of the spectrum or five photons of the highest frequency. The nonlinearity of the photoionization process allows us to characterize the light source. Experiment-to-theory comparison implies generation of a near single-cycle waveform.