Multiphoton Resonance Meets Tunneling Ionization: High-Efficient Photoexcitation in Strong-Field-Dressed Ions
Tunneling ionization, a fascinating quantum phenomenon, has played the key role in the development of attosecond physics. Upon absorption of a few tens of photons, tunneling ionization creates ions in different excited states and even enables the formation of population inversion between ionic states. However, the underlying physics is still being debated. Here, we demonstrate a significant enhancement in the efficiency of multiphoton excitation when ionization of neutral molecules and resonant excitation of ions coexist in strong laser fields. It facilitates the dramatic increase in population inversion and lasing radiation in N_{2}^{+} around 1000 nm pump wavelength. Utilizing the ionization-coupling theory, we discover that the synergistic interplay between tunneling ionization and multiphoton excitation enables the ionic coherence to be maximized by phase locking of the periodically created ionic dipoles and consistently maintain an optimal phase for the follow-up photoexcitation. This Letter provides new insights into the photoexcitation mechanism of ions in strong laser fields and opens up a route for optimizing ionic lasing radiations.
Authors
- Jing Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6912-5299)
- Yuzhu Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-5447-8803)
- Hongbin Lei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2035-3658)
- Zengxiu Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7974-7702)
- He Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1669-1358)
- Qian Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3379-2107)
- Jinping Yao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5063-4621)
- Hongqiang Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2319-5261)
- Quanjun Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8087-2727)
- Shunlin Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9404-5768)
- Jianpeng Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8564-0415)
- Yi Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0821-7322)
- Ning Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8057-0286)
- Yewei Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6542-3741)
- Xu Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5630-0235)
Institutions
- Shanghai University (CN)
- University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (CN)
- National University of Defense Technology (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- East China University of Technology (CN)
- Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2024-09-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.133.113201
- Citations
- 9
- Primary Topic
- Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.04
Funders
- Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences