In Situ Measurement of Three-Dimensional Ion Densities in Focused Femtosecond Pulses

Authors

James Strohaber, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Cornelis J. Uiterwaal, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

1-18-2008

Comments

Published in Physical Review Letters 100, 023002 (January 18, 2008). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.023002 Copyright © 2008 The American Physical Society. Used by permission. Online @ http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v100/e023002

Abstract

We image spatial distributions of Xe^q+ ions in the focus of a laser beam of ultrashort, intense pulses in all three dimensions, with a resolution of ~3μm and ~12 μm in the two transverse directions. This allows for studying ionization processes without spatially averaging ion yields. Our in situ ion imaging is also useful to analyze focal intensity profiles and to investigate the transverse modal purity of tightly focused beams of complex light. As an example, the intensity profile of a Hermite-Gaussian beam mode HG_1,0 recorded with ions is found to be in good agreement with optical images.