Strong-field induced atomic excitation and kinematics

Abstract

Frustrated tunneling ionization (FTI) has recently been found to be an important exit channel of atomic strong-field ionization models such as the simple man's or rescattering model if one considers the Coulomb field explicitly. It leads to the population of bound excited states rather than to ionization after the electron has tunneled and quivered in the laser field. In this chapter we introduce the FTI model and describe experiments whose outcome supports its importance. In particular, we focus on strong-field excitation of atoms and the observation of neutral (ionic) excited fragments with high kinetic energy in strong-field fragmentation and Coulomb explosion of small molecules. Furthermore, we present experiments in which a direct position sensitive detection of excited neutral atoms reveals the exceptionally high acceleration of atoms in short pulsed strongly focused laser fields and discuss possible applications.