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Plasma formation through field ionization in intense laser–matter interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2004

D. BAUER
D. BAUER
Affiliation:
Max-Born-Institut, Max-Born-Str. 2a, 12489 Berlin, Germany and Institut für Angewandte Physik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany
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Abstract

Optical field ionization is the earliest and fastest plasma-generating process during the interaction of intense laser light with matter. By using short and rapidly rising laser pulses, the free electron density may turn from being transparent for an incoming laser pulse to reflective in less than half a laser cycle, that is, on a subfemtosecond timescale. Extremely nonlinear optical effects arise as a consequence of this. In this article, the basics of optical field ionization that are relevant in analytical or numerical studies of intense laser–matter interactions are reviewed. Several macroscopic effects of field ionization in the interaction of intense laser pulses with solid targets are briefly surveyed.

Keywords

Field ionizationIntense laserPlasmas

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 2003 , pp. 489 - 495
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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