Probing elastic rescattering through half-cycle cutoffs in above-threshold ionization spectra

Abstract

We observe photoelectron spectra from above-threshold ionization of xenon using carrier-envelope phase-stabilized few-cycle pulses at 1.6 μm. The signature of elastic scattering is imprinted on the spectra, and through careful analysis we successfully retrieve the electron-ion backscattering cross section in the energy range from 10 to 30 eV, where we find a resonance-like structure at 17.5 eV.