Absolute strong-field ionization probabilities of ultracold rubidium atoms

Abstract

We report on precise measurements of absolute nonlinear ionization probabilities obtained by exposing optically trapped ultracold rubidium atoms to the field of an ultrashort laser pulse in the intensity range of $1\times 10^{11}$ to $4\times 10^{13}$ W/cm${}^2$. The experimental data are in perfect agreement with ab-initio theory, based on solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation without any free parameters. Ultracold targets allow to retrieve absolute probabilities since ionized atoms become apparent as a local vacancy imprinted into the target density, which is recorded simultaneously. We study the strong-field response of ${}^{87}$Rb atoms at two different wavelengths representing non-resonant and resonant processes in the demanding regime where the Keldysh parameter is close to unity.

arXiv comment13 pages, 7 figures. This is a pre-print of an article published in Communications Physics. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-018-0032-5

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Cited by in corpus (16)

• Cold hybrid ion-atom systems
• Quantized conductance through a dissipative atomic point contact
• Ionic polaron in a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Ultrafast Electron Cooling in an Expanding Ultracold Plasma
• Expansion Dynamics of Cold Non-Neutral Plasma
• Ellipticity-dependent sequential over-barrier ionization of cold rubidium
• Dynamics of a trapped ion in a quantum gas: effects of particle statistics
• Non-linear dynamical response of interacting bosons to synthetic electric field
• On the selective multiphoton ionization of sodium by femtosecond laser pulses: A partial-wave analysis
• Few-photon single ionization of cold rubidium in the over-the-barrier regime
• Spectral properties of a three body atom-ion hybrid system
• Non-linear response of interacting bosons in a quasiperiodic potential
• A General Strategy for Realizing Mpemba Effects in Open Quantum Systems
• Cooling dynamics of a free ion in a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Long range propagation of ultrafast, ionizing laser pulses in a resonant nonlinear medium
• Ultrafast many-body dynamics of dense Rydberg gases and ultracold plasma