Photoelectron spectroscopic determination of the energy bandwidths of high-order harmonics (7th–55th) produced by an ultrafast laser in neon

Abstract

The energy bandwidths of high-order harmonics of a Ti:sapphire ultrafast laser are extracted from electron kinetic-energy measurements of the photoionization of gas-phase atoms and molecules. High-order harmonics of the 70 fs, 800 nm laser are produced by focusing ≈2.5 mJ pulses into a jet of neon gas and are frequency-separated by a grazing-incidence grating. Photoelectrons resulting from the ionization of gaseous samples are energy-analyzed with a magnetic bottle time-of-flight spectrometer. Energy broadening of the photoelectron peaks at low kinetic energies are a direct result of the energy bandwidths of the harmonics. The energy bandwidths of the harmonics are found to increase from 0.11(±0.03) eV (7th harmonic) to 0.37(±0.03) eV (45th harmonic) in a gradual manner. The higher-order harmonics (47th-55th) appear to reach a plateau at a value of ≈0.43 eV. Though a full theoretical treatment of bandwidths of the harmonics for the 70 fs driving pulse regime does not exist, the theories developed for shorter pulses(<˜30 fs) can give insight into the observed results.