Laser-assisted electron scattering and its application to laser-assisted electron diffraction of molecules in femtosecond intense laser fields

Abstract

The experimental results of laser-assisted electron scattering (LAES) of Xe in a femtosecond intense laser field are introduced. The intensities, angular distributions, and laser polarization dependence of the observed LAES signals for the energy gain (+ hω) and energy loss (-hω) processes were in good agreement with numerical simulations. As an application of this femtosecond-LAES process, a new method of time-resolved gas electron diffraction for determining instantaneous geometrical structure of molecules with high precision is proposed, and its feasibility is confirmed by a numerical simulation of LAES signals for CCl4 molecules. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.