Numerical investigation of the sequential-double-ionization dynamics of helium in different few-cycle-laser-field shapes

Abstract

We investigate sequential double ionization of helium by intense near-circularly polarized few-cycle laser pulses using a semiclassical ionization model with two independent electrons. Simulated He2+ ion momentum distributions are compared to those obtained in recent benchmark experiments [M. S. Schöffler, X. Xie, P. Wustelt, M. Möller, S. Roither, D. Kartashov, A. M. Sayler, A. Baltuska, G. G. Paulus, and M. Kitzler, Phys. Rev. A 93, 063421 (2016)2469-992610.1103/PhysRevA.93.063421]. We study the influence of a number of pulse parameters such as peak intensity, carrier-envelope phase, pulse duration, and second- and third-order spectral phase on the shape of the ion momentum distributions. Good agreement is found in the main features of these distributions and of their dependence on the laser pulse duration, peak intensity, and carrier-envelope phase. Furthermore, we find that for explaining certain fine-scale features observed in the experiments, it becomes important to consider subtle timing variations in the two-electron emissions introduced by small values of chirp. This result highlights the possibility of measuring and controlling multielectron dynamics on the attosecond time scale by fine tuning the field evolution of intense close-to-single-cycle laser pulses.