Mainz 2017 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 38: Atoms in Strong Fields II

A 38.7: Talk

Friday, March 10, 2017, 16:00–16:15, N 2

Virtual-detector approach to tunneling times in strong-field ionization — •Heiko Bauke, Nicolas Teeny, and Christoph H. Keitel — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Employing a virtual detector [1, 2], a hypothetical device that allows one to monitor the wave function’s density with spatial and temporal resolution during the ionization process, it becomes possible to determine probability distributions for the moments when the electron enters and leaves the classically forbidden region from first principles. In this way, a tunneling time in strong-field ionization can be specified. It is shown that neither the moment when the electron most likely enters the tunneling barrier nor when it leaves the tunneling barrier coincides with the moment when the external electric field reaches its maximum. Under the tunneling barrier as well as at the exit the electron has a nonzero velocity in the electric field direction. These results are substantiated by an independent determination of the tunneling time via a quantum clock approach [3], which yields very similar results.

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