Peer-Review Publications

We investigate the photoionization of atoms by attosecond X waves carrying orbital angular momentum in the presence of a strong, linearly polarized, near infrared (NIR) laser pulse. In the plane-wave case, the streaking of photoelectrons by the NIR pulse has been used to characterize the ionizing pulse. In contrast to plane-wave pulses, X waves have a spatially dependent temporal profile, which modifies the ionization process. Here we explore theoretically the influence of this complex pulse structure on the streaking of photoelectrons for both localized and macroscopically extended targets. On the basis of the strong-field approximation, we find that the streaking spectra of localized targets sensitively depend on the opening angle of the X wave and the position of the atomic target relative to the beam axis. For macroscopically extended targets, we find that the streaking spectra do not depend on the parameters characterizing the twist of the X wave.

The binding energies of the ground 1s2 2s2 2p1/2 and first excited 1s2 2s2 2p3/2 states in boronlike argon are rigorously evaluated. The calculations are performed by the QED perturbation theory in the framework of the extended Furry picture taking into account all the relevant first- and second-order radiative and correlation corrections. The third- and higher-order interelectronic-interaction effects are considered within the Breit approximation. The relativistic nuclear recoil effect is taken into account. In comparison with the previous calculations of the binding energies in boronlike argon the accuracy of the theoretical predictions has been significantly improved.

Angular distribution and linear polarization of photon emission following dielectronic recombination of initially lithium-like ions with spin-polarized electrons are studied. In particular, a general expression is derived for the alignment parameter of the doubly excited states produced via the resonant capture of spin-polarized electrons. By means of the alignment parameter, moreover, the angular distribution and linear polarization of the subsequently emitted photons are further obtained. Detailed computations are performed for the 1s2 2s J0=1/2+εe-→1s2s2 2p1/2 J=1→1s2 2s2 Jf=0+γ resonant electron capture and subsequent radiative decay of iodine ions. It is found that the spin polarization of the incident electrons changes only the q=±1 components of the alignment parameter A2q. As a consequence, the electron spin polarization contributes weakly to the γ photon angular distribution and linear polarization that are dominantly determined by the A20 parameter.

An effective computational method is developed for electronic-structure calculations in few-electron atoms and ions on the basis of the Dirac-Coulomb-Breit Hamiltonian. The recursive formulation of the perturbation theory provides an efficient access to the higher-order contributions of the interelectronic interaction. Application of the presented approach to the binding energies of lithiumlike and boronlike systems is demonstrated. The results obtained are in agreement with the large-scale configuration interaction Dirac-Fock-Sturm method and other all-order calculations.

Abstract We investigate the dielectronic recombination (DR) of an electron and a highly-charged ion with non-zero nuclear spin. We assume that the incident electron is captured into doubly-excited 1s2κκ′J=0,1,2 levels of Be-like ions just above of its autoionization threshold. The angular distribution of the subsequent radiative emission is investigated especially for its dependence upon the nuclear spin and the nuclear magnetic moment. While the hyperfine and even the fine-structure of the ions cannot be resolved in typical DR experiments, we found the photon angular distribution, following the decay of the 1s2 2p3/2nsJ=1,2 DR resonance very sensitive to the nuclear parameters.

In this work, we present a pilot experiment in the experimental storage ring (ESR) at GSI devoted to impact parameter sensitive studies of inner shell atomic processes for low-energy (heavy-) ion-atom collisions. The experiment was performed with bare and He-like xenon ions (Xe54+, Xe52+) colliding with neutral xenon gas atoms, resulting in a symmetric collision system. This choice of the projectile charge states was made in order to compare the effect of a filled K-shell with the empty one. The projectile and target X-rays have been measured at different observation angles for all impact parameters as well as for the impact parameter range of ∼35–70 fm.

Non-perturbative calculations of the relativistic quantum dynamics of electrons in the Bi83+-Xe collisions at 70 AMeV are performed. A method of calculation employs an independent particle model with effective single-electron Dirac-Kohn-Sham operator. Solving of the single-electron equations is based on the coupled-channel approach with atomic-like Dirac-Sturm-Fock orbitals, localized at the ions (atoms). Special attention is paid to the inner-shell processes. Intensities of the K satellite and hypersatellite target radiation are evaluated. The role of the relativistic effects is studied.

We model the multiple ionization of near-neutral core-excited atoms where a cascade of Auger processes leads to the emission of several electrons. We utilize the multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock (MCDF) method to generate approximate wave functions for all fine-structure levels and to account for all decays between them. This approach allows to compute electron spectra, the population of final-states and ion yields, that are accessible in many experiments. Furthermore, our approach is based on the configuration interaction method. A careful treatment of correlation between electronic configurations enables one to model three-electron processes such as an Auger decay that is accompanied by an additional shake-up transition. Here, this model is applied to the triple ionization of atomic cadmium, where we show that the decay of inner-shell 4p holes to triply-charged final states is purely due to the shake-up transition of valence 5s electrons.

Absolute cross-sections for m -fold photoionization (m=1, ... , 6 ) of Fe+ by a single photon were measured employing the photon–ion merged-beams setup PIPE at the PETRA III synchrotron light source, operated by DESY in Hamburg, Germany. Photon energies were in the range 680–920 eV, which covers the photoionization resonances associated with 2p and 2s excitation to higher atomic shells as well as the thresholds for 2p and 2s ionization. The corresponding resonance positions were measured with an uncertainty of ±0.2 eV. The cross-section for Fe+ photoabsorption is derived as the sum of the individually measured cross-sections for m -fold ionization. Calculations of the Fe+ absorption cross-sections were carried out using two different theoretical approaches, Hartree–Fock including relativistic extensions and fully relativistic multiconfiguration Dirac–Fock. Apart from overall energy shifts of up to about 3 eV, the theoretical cross-sections are in good agreement with each other and with the experimental results. In addition, the complex de-excitation cascades after the creation of inner-shell holes in the Fe+ ion were tracked on the atomic fine-structure level. The corresponding theoretical results for the product charge-state distributions are in much better agreement with the experimental data than previously published configuration-average results. The present experimental and theoretical results are valuable for opacity calculations and are expected to pave the way to a more accurate determination of the iron abundance in the interstellar medium.

High-average power laser sources delivering intense few-cycle pulses in wavelength regions beyond the near infrared are promising tools for driving the next generation of high-flux strong-field experiments. In this work, we report on nonlinear pulse compression to 34.4 μJ-, 2.1-cycle pulses with 1.4 GW peak power at a central wavelength of 1.82 μm and an average power of 43 W. This performance level was enabled by the combination of a high-repetition-rate ultrafast thulium-doped fiber laser system and a gas-filled antiresonant hollow-core fiber.

The relativistic treatment of the nuclear magnetic shielding effect in boronlike ions is presented. The leading-order contribution of the magnetic-dipole hyperfine interaction is calculated. Along with the standard second-order perturbation theory expression, the solutions of the Dirac equation in the presence of magnetic field are employed. All methods are found to be in agreement with each other and with the previous calculations for hydrogenlike and lithiumlike ions. The effective screening potential is used to account approximately for the interelectronic interaction.

A method for calculation of electron-positron pair production in low-energy heavy-ion collisions beyond the monopole approximation is presented. The method is based on the numerical solving of the time-dependent Dirac equation with the full two-center potential. The one-electron wave functions are expanded in the finite basis set constructed on the two-dimensional spatial grid. Employing the developed approach the probabilities of bound-free pair production are calculated for collisions of bare uranium nuclei at the energy near the Coulomb barrier. The obtained results are compared with the corresponding values calculated in the monopole approximation.

Abstract A theoretical investigation of the second-order Zeeman effect in boronlike ions is presented. Rigorous calculations of the one-photon-exchange and one-loop QED corrections allow for predictions of the corresponding theoretical values for boronlike argon with an accuracy of about 2%. The obtained results are important in view of the forthcoming measurements of the Zeeman splitting in 40Ar13+ at GSI (ARTEMIS experiment).

Relativistic effects in the non-resonant two-photon K-shell ionization of neutral atoms are studied theoretically within the framework of second-order perturbation theory. The non-relativistic results are compared with the relativistic calculations in the dipole and no-pair approximations as well as with the complete relativistic approach. The calculations are performed in both velocity and length gauges. Our results show a significant decrease of the total cross section for heavy atoms as compared to the non-relativistic treatment, which is mainly due to the relativistic wavefunction contraction. The effects of higher multipoles and negative continuum energy states counteract the relativistic contraction contribution, but are generally much weaker. While the effects beyond the dipole approximation are equally important in both gauges, the inclusion of negative continuum energy states visibly contributes to the total cross section only in the velocity gauge.

The generation of high-quality relativistic positron beams is a central area of research in experimental physics, due to their potential relevance in a wide range of scientific and engineering areas, ranging from fundamental science to practical applications. There is now growing interest in developing hybrid machines that will combine plasma-based acceleration techniques with more conventional radio-frequency accelerators, in order to minimise the size and cost of these machines. Here we report on recent experiments on laser-driven generation of high-quality positron beams using a relatively low energy and potentially table-top laser system. The results obtained indicate that current technology allows to create, in a compact setup, positron beams suitable for injection in radio-frequency accelerators.

Ionization of an atom or molecule by a strong laser field produces suboptical cycle wave packets whose control has given rise to attosecond science. The final states of the wave packets depend on ionization and deflection by the laser field, which are convoluted in conventional experiments. Here, we demonstrate a technique enabling efficient electron deflection, separate from the field driving strong-field ionization. Using a midinfrared deflection field permits one to distinguish electron wave packets generated at different field maxima of an intense few-cycle visible laser pulse. We utilize this capability to trace the scattering of low-energy electrons driven by the midinfrared field. Our approach represents a general technique for studying and controlling strong-field ionization dynamics on the attosecond time scale.

We show how all possible one-particle reducible tadpole diagrams in constant electromagnetic fields can be constructed from one-particle irreducible constant-field diagrams. The construction procedure is essentially algebraic and involves differentiations of the latter class of diagrams with respect to the field strength tensor and contractions with derivatives of the one-particle irreducible part of the Heisenberg-Euler effective Lagrangian in constant fields. Specific examples include the two-loop addendum to the Heisenberg-Euler effective action as well as a novel one-loop correction to the charged particle propagator in constant electromagnetic fields discovered recently. As an additional example, the approach devised in the present article is adopted to derive the tadpole contribution to the two-loop photon polarization tensor in constant fields for the first time.

We present a novel approach for temporal contrast enhancement of energetic laser pulses by filtered self-phase-modulation-broadened spectra. A measured temporal contrast enhancement by at least seven orders of magnitude in a simple setup has been achieved. This technique is applicable to a wide range of laser parameters and poses a highly efficient alternative to existing contrast-enhancement methods.

We investigate the deexcitation of the 229Th nucleus via the excitation of an electron. Detailed calculations are performed for the enhancement of the nuclear decay width due to the so called electron bridge (EB) compared to the direct photoemission from the nucleus. The results are obtained for triply ionized thorium by using a B-spline pseudo basis approach to solve the Dirac equation for a local xα potential. This approach allows for an approximation of the full electron propagator including the positive and negative continuum. We show that the contribution of continua slightly increases the enhancement compared to a propagator calculated by a direct summation over bound states. Moreover we put special emphasis on the interference between the direct and exchange Feynman diagrams that can have a strong influence on the enhancement.

The contribution of the third order in magnetic field to the Zeeman splitting of the ground state of hydrogenlike, lithiumlike, and boronlike ions in the range Z=6-82 is investigated within the relativistic approach. Both perturbative and non-perturbative methods of calculation are employed and found to be in agreement. For lithiumlike and boronlike ions the interelectronic-interaction effects are taken into account within the approximation of the local screening potential. The contribution of the third-order effect in low- and medium-Z boronlike ions is found to be important for anticipated high-precision measurements.

Attosecond time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy reveals that photoemission from solids is not yet fully understood. The relative emission delays between four photoemission channels measured for the van der Waals crystal tungsten diselenide (WSe2) can only be explained by accounting for both propagation and intra-atomic delays. The intra-atomic delay depends on the angular momentum of the initial localized state and is determined by intra-atomic interactions. For the studied case of WSe2, the photoemission events are time ordered with rising initial-state angular momentum. Including intra-atomic electron-electron interaction and angular momentum of the initial localized state yields excellent agreement between theory and experiment. This has required a revision of existing models for solid-state photoemission, and thus, attosecond time-resolved photoemission from solids provides important benchmarks for improved future photoemission models.

This paper is devoted to an investigation of nonlinearly charged dilatonic black holes in the context of gravity's rainbow with two cases: (1) by considering the usual entropy, (2) in the presence of first order logarithmic correction of the entropy. First, exact black hole solutions of dilatonic Born—Infeld gravity with an energy dependent Liouville-type potential are obtained. Then, thermodynamic properties of the mentioned cases are studied, separately. It will be shown that although mass, entropy and the heat capacity are modified due to the presence of a first order correction, the temperature remains independent of it. Furthermore, it will be shown that divergences of the heat capacity, hence phase transition points are also independent of a first order correction, whereas the stability conditions are highly sensitive to variation of the correction parameter. Except for the effects of a first order correction, we will also present a limit on the values of the dilatonic parameter and show that it is possible to recognize AdS and dS thermodynamical behaviors for two specific branches of the dilatonic parameter. In addition, the effects of nonlinear electromagnetic field and energy functions on the thermodynamical behavior of the solutions will be highlighted and dependency of critical behavior, on these generalizations will be investigated.

The interaction of micro- and nano-structured target surfaces with high-power laser pulses is being widely investigated for its unprecedented absorption efficiency. We have developed vertically aligned metallic micro-pillar arrays for laser-driven proton acceleration experiments. We demonstrate that such targets help strengthen interaction mechanisms when irradiated with high-energy-class laser pulses of intensities ~10^17–18 W/cm2. In comparison with standard planar targets, we witness strongly enhanced hot-electron production and proton acceleration both in terms of maximum energies and particle numbers. Supporting our experimental results, two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show an increase in laser energy conversion into hot electrons, leading to stronger acceleration fields. This opens a window of opportunity for further improvements of laser-driven ion acceleration systems.

The influence of plasma environment on the atomic parameters associated with the K-vacancy states has been investigated theoretically for several iron ions. To do this, a time-averaged Debye–Hückel potential for both the electron–nucleus and electron–electron interactions has been considered in the framework of relativistic multiconfiguration Dirac–Fock computations. More particularly, the plasma screening effects on ionization potentials, K-thresholds, transition energies, and radiative rates have been estimated in the astrophysical context of accretion disks around black holes. In the present paper, we describe the behaviour of those atomic parameters for Ne-, Na-, Ar-, and K-like iron ions.

We report large-scale multi-configuration Dirac–Hartree–Fock calculations and relativistic configuration interaction calculations for allowed E1 and forbidden transitions (M1, E2, M2) among the fine structure levels of the 3s^2 3p^5, 3s 3p^6 and 3s^2 3p^4 3d configurations for Ni xii. In our systematically enlarged wave functions, we incorporated the effects of relativity, all important electron correlations and rearrangement of the bound electron density within two different computational models. We compare our calculated energies for the fine structure levels with previous calculations and experiments. We validate all the tentative experimental lines recently identified by Del Zanna & Badnell with one exception. We discuss the consistency of our transition rates in comparison to semi-empirical predictions. We present ab initio lifetime values by taking into account all allowed E1 and forbidden transitions (M1, E2, M2) rates among lowest 31 levels. Our results for lifetime values are better than previously reported ab initio and semi-empirical values as compared to available experiments, thus, providing reliable predictions in the prospects of future experiments.