Recollision of excited electron in below-threshold nonsequential double ionization

Consensus has been reached that recollision, as the most important post-tunneling process, is responsible for nonsequential double ionization process in intense infrared laser field, however, its effect has been restricted to interaction between the first ionized electron and the residual ion so far. Here we identify the key role of recollision of the second ionized electron, which is enhanced by the stronger Coulomb potential of the higher valence residual ion, in the below-threshold nonsequential double ionization process by introducing a Coulomb-corrected quantum-trajectories method, which enables us to well reproduce the experimentally observed cross-shaped and anti-correlated patterns in correlated two-electron momentum distributions, and also the transition between these two patterns. Being significantly enhanced relatively by the recapture process which is also attributed to the stronger Coulomb potential of the residual ion, recolliding trajectories of the second electron excited by the first- or third-return recolliding trajectories of the first electron produce the cross-shaped or anti-correlated distributions, respectively. And the transition is induced by the increasing contribution of the third return with increasing pulse duration. Our work provides a new insight into atomic ionization dynamics and paves the new way to imaging of ultrafast dynamics of atoms and molecules in intense laser field.

Relativistic impulse approximation in the atomic ionization process induced by millicharged particles

The millicharged particle has become an attractive topic to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. In direct detection experiments, the parameter space of millicharged particles can be constrained from the atomic ionization process. In this work, we develop the relativistic impulse approximation (RIA) approach, which can duel with atomic many-body effects effectively, in the atomic ionization process induced by millicharged particles. The formulation of RIA in the atomic ionization induced by millicharged particles is derived, and the numerical calculations are obtained and compared with those from free electron approximation and equivalent photon approximation. Concretely, the atomic ionizations induced by mllicharged dark matter particles and millicharged neutrinos in high-purity germanium (HPGe) and liquid xenon (LXe) detectors are carefully studied in this work. The differential cross sections, reaction event rates in HPGe and LXe detectors, and detecting sensitivities on dark matter particle and neutrino millicharge in next-generation HPGe and LXe based experiments are estimated and calculated to give a comprehensive study. Our results suggested that the next-generation experiments would improve 2-3 orders of magnitude on dark matter particle millicharge δχ than the current best experimental bounds in direct detection experiments. Furthermore, the next-generation experiments would also improve 2-3 times on neutrino millicharge δν than the current experimental bounds.

Modulation of L-cysteine adsorption on graphene: the role of the Al, Si, P, S dopant and the vacancy

Promoting the application potential of graphenes in biomolecule adsorption and detection is of great significance in the field of nanobiotechnology. In this paper, the density functional theory calculation was used to study the adsorption and sensing of L-cysteine on graphene-based compounds, single-vacancy and double-vacancy graphenes (XSV and XDV) doped with 3p-bolck elements (Al, Si, P, and S). Along with the dopant changing from Al to S, XSV exhibits decreasing exothermical chemisorption to endothermical chemi-sorption, while XDV exhibits decreasing exothermical chemisorption to endothermical physisorption. L-cysteine adsorption on XDV is weaker than corresponding adsorption on XSV. Valence electron number, and atomic ionization potential, modulated by the 3p-block dopant, and X-C interaction, modulated by the vacancy type, contribute to adsorption mechanism of L-cysteine on XGs. The study could facilitate applications of Al, Si, P and S doped graphenes in biosensing technology, biomolecule immobilization, bioseparation and other fields.

L3-subshell alignment of Ag in collision with 15 keV electrons

It is of great importance to study the alignment of atoms in collision process in elementary analysis with a Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) technique. The measurement of alignment can also offer an effective testing ground for developing theory models in ionization process. The typical L X-ray spectra are measured for Ag thin target by 15 keV electron impact at emission angles from 0° to 25°. Angular dependence of intensity ratios Lα/Lβ1, Lβ2/Lβ1 and Lγ/Lβ1 are investigated as a function of the second-order Legendre polynomial P2(cosθ). This study found that Lβ2 line exhibits anisotropic emission spatially, while the emission of Lα, Lβ1 and Lγ1 lines is isotropic. The results are interpreted by the influence of the Coster-Kronig (CK) transitions on the spatial distribution of X-ray emission. The anisotropy parameter β for Lβ2 lines is obtained experimentally and consequently the alignment degree A20 for L3 subshell is determined by taking CK transition into account. Namely, the alignment does exist in L3-subshell for atomic ionization by electron impact. The measurements offer an evidence to the existence of alignment for atomic ionization in electron-impact process.

Photoelectron Angular Distributions of Nonresonant Two-Photon Atomic Ionization Near Nonlinear Cooper Minima

Photoelectron angular distributions of the two-photon ionization of neutral atoms are theoretically investigated. Numerical calculations of two-photon ionization cross sections and asymmetry parameters are carried out within the independent-particle approximation and relativistic second-order perturbation theory. The dependence of the asymmetry parameters on the polarization and energy of the incident light as well as on the angular momentum properties of the ionized electron are investigated. While dynamic variations of the angular distributions at photon energies near intermediate level resonances are expected, we demonstrate that equally strong variations occur near the nonlinear Cooper minimum. The described phenomena is demonstrated on the example of two-photon ionization of magnesium atom.