New insights in strong-field photoionization

Fully grasping the process of photoionization of atoms and molecules constitutes one of the main aims in strong-field physics, a field of study which is constantly surprising us with its richness and complexity beyond our current understanding.
A recent publication in Scientific Reports by the Attoscience and Ultrafast Optics (AUO) group led by ICREA Professor at ICFO, Jens Biegert, in collaboration with the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik in Heidelberg, Germany, reports on the first experimentally measured 3D electron momentum distributions of photoionization in Ar and O2 in the deep tunneling regime (gamma = 0.3), where surprising new electron dynamics of near-zero momentum electrons and extremely low momentum structures can be observed.
The AUO group is the first in conducting such high-precision measurements, achieved thanks to their uniquely developed ultrafast mid-IR light source in combination with a reaction microscope (ReMi), therefore permitting an unprecedented new level of research into mid-IR recollision physics.