2008, Kling, M.F., Rauschenberger, J., Verhoef, A.J., Hasović, E., Uphues, T., Milošević, D.B., Muller, H.G., Vrakking, M.J.J.

Sub-femtosecond control of the electron emission in above-threshold ionization of the rare gases Ar, Xe and Kr in intense few-cycle laser fields is reported with full angular resolution. Experimental data that were obtained with the velocity-map imaging technique are compared to simulations using the strong-field approximation (SFA) and full time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) calculations. We find a pronounced asymmetry in both the energy and angular distributions of the electron emission that critically depends on the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of the laser field. The potential use of imaging techniques as a tool for single-shot detection of the CEP is discussed. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.

2010, Mauritsson, J., Remetter, T., Swoboda, M., Klünder, K., L'Huillier, A., Schafer, K.J., Ghafur, O., Kelkensberg, F., Siu, W., Johnsson, P., Vrakking, M.J.J., Znakovskaya, I., Uphues, T., Zherebtsov, S., Kling, M.F., Lépine, F., Benedetti, E., Ferrari, F., Sansone, G., Nisoli, M.

We present an interferometric pump-probe technique for the characterization of attosecond electron wave packets (WPs) that uses a free WP as a reference to measure a bound WP. We demonstrate our method by exciting helium atoms using an attosecond pulse (AP) with a bandwidth centered near the ionization threshold, thus creating both a bound and a free WP simultaneously. After a variable delay, the bound WP is ionized by a few-cycle infrared laser precisely synchronized to the original AP. By measuring the delay-dependent photoelectron spectrum we obtain an interferogram that contains both quantum beats as well as multipath interference. Analysis of the interferogram allows us to determine the bound WP components with a spectral resolution much better than the inverse of the AP duration. © 2010 The American Physical Society.