Probing the influence of the Coulomb field on atomic ionization by sculpted two-color laser fields

Abstract

Interpretation of electron or photon spectra obtained with strong laser pulses that may carry attosecond dynamical and Ångström structural information about atoms or molecules usually relies on variants of the strong-field approximation (SFA) within which the influence of the Coulomb potential on the electron trajectory is neglected. We employ two-color sculpted laser fields to experimentally tune and probe the influence of the Coulomb field on the strong-field-driven wavepacket as observed by two-dimensional electron and ion momentum spectra. By comparison of measured spectra with predictions of the three-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation as well as the quasi-classical limit of the SFA, the strong-field classical trajectory model, we are able to trace back the influence of the Coulomb field to the timing of the wavepacket release with sub-cycle precision.