Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme
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PV: Plenarvorträge
PV III
PV III: Plenary Talk
Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 09:15–10:00, 3A
Atoms and Molecules in Extreme Electromagnetic Fields: From Atto- to Femtoseconds — •Joachim Ullrich — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany
Highly-charged ions at velocities close to the speed of light, available at GSI in Darmstadt, generate extremely strong (I ∼ 1015 – 1023 W/cm2), attosecond (∼ 10 − 18 s) electromagnetic pulses when passing target atoms, molecules or clusters. Modern Ti:Sa laser systems deliver femtosecond (∼ 10 − 15 s) optical pulses at power densities exceeding 1015 with records up to 1022 W/cm2. The VUV Free electron Laser at Hamburg (FLASH), the first world-wide, provides coherent 20 fs radiation pulses at 1014 W/cm2 and photon energies as high as 100 eV.
How do such super-strong electromagnetic fields couple to matter, to single atoms or molecules on these very different, though ultra-short time scales? What are the dynamic mechanisms of atto- or femtosecond single and multiple electron removal occurring e.g. with mega barn cross sections for the ejection of all 18 electrons from an Ar atom in a single collision with a heavy ion? Can we trace and possibly control the correlated femto- or sub-femtosecond quantum dynamics of electrons and ions in such fields? Might we be able to have a glimpse on the attosecond bound-state correlated motion in many-electron atoms or molecules?
Using ”Reaction-Microscopes”, i.e. many-particle imaging spectrometers, such questions can now be explored in unprecedented detail at heavy-ion accelerators, at optical as well as free electron lasers and will be elucidated in the talk.