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arXiv · 2502.19007

Resolving Rydberg-Electron Recapture Dynamics via Laser-driven Frustrated Tunneling Ionization

Sainan Peng·Yudong Chen·Yang Li·Guangyu Fan·Xinhua Xie·Feng He·Zhensheng Tao
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Abstract

By employing two-color counter-rotating circularly polarized laser fields, we investigate the dynamics of electron recapture into Rydberg states under strong, ultrashort laser pulses, probed via coherent extreme-ultraviolet free-induction decay (XFID). Our study reveals significant distinctions between XFID and above-threshold high-order harmonic generation in terms of their ellipticity dependence on the driving-laser waveforms, yield variations with the laser-intensity ratios, and sensitivity to the driving-laser ellipticity. All these differences arise from the fundamentally distinct electron trajectories underlying the two processes. More importantly, our findings provide compelling evidence that Rydberg-electron recapture predominantly occurs at the end of the driving laser field, offering the first direct experimental confirmation of this long-proposed mechanism.

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Sainan Peng, Yudong Chen, Yang Li, Guangyu Fan, Xinhua Xie, Feng He, Zhensheng Tao. 2025-02-26. Resolving Rydberg-Electron Recapture Dynamics via Laser-driven Frustrated Tunneling Ionization. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.134.123203

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