Ionization by strong laser fields: Understanding the 'Ionization Surprise'
Thursday, December 16, 2010 - 13:20
in Physics & Chemistry
In 2009 researchers found an "ionization surprise" that defied explanation. Until that time, it had been commonly thought that the ionization of atoms by strong laser fields was well-understood, but novel experiments where rare gas atoms were ionized using relatively long (few-micrometers) wavelength laser light suddenly revealed an unexpected and universal low-energy feature that defied explanation. Now, scientists have provided an explanation.