Recollision-Induced Plasmon Excitation in Strong Laser Fields

Abstract

Recolliding electrons are responsible for many of the interesting phenomena observed in the interaction of strong laser fields with atoms and molecules. We show that in multielectron targets such as C60 a new important recollision pathway opens up: the returning electron may excite collective modes even if the laser frequency is far off-resonant. We formulate a simple analytical theory which predicts that the recollision-induced excitation of collective modes should dominate over the "usual" harmonic generation yield at 800nm wavelength. In this case the tomographic imaging of complex multielectron systems may be obscured. We employ a time-dependent density functional model of C60 and show that with increasing laser wavelength the dynamics becomes more and more single active electron-like, suggesting that long wavelengths are to be preferred for imaging purposes.

Extended version (9 pages, 9 figures, REVTeX)

References in corpus (4)

• QPROP: A Schroedinger-solver for intense laser-atom interaction
• Quantum path interference in the wavelength dependence of high-harmonic generation
• C${}_{60}$ in intense femtosecond laser pulses: nonlinear dipole response and ionization
• Plasmon signatures in high harmonic generation

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Local dynamics in high-order harmonic generation using Bohmian trajectories
• Bohmian trajectory analysis of high-order harmonic generation: ensemble averages, non-locality and quantitative aspects
• Annular billiard dynamics in a circularly polarized strong laser field
• Ultrafast dynamics and fragmentation of C60 in intense laser pulses