A zero dead-time multi-particle time and position sensitive detector based on correlation between brightness and amplitude.

A new multi-particle time and position sensitive detector using only a set of microchannel plates, a waveform digitizer, a phosphor screen, and a CMOS camera is described. The assignment of the timing information, as taken from the microchannel plates by fast digitizing, to the positions, as recorded by the camera, is based on the COrrelation between the BRightness of the phosphor screen spots, defined as their integrated intensity and the Amplitude of the electrical signals (COBRA). Tests performed by observing the dissociation of HeH, the fragmentation of H3 into two or three fragments, and the photo-double-ionization of Xenon atoms are presented, which illustrate the performances of the COBRA detection scheme.

Flexible attosecond beamline for high harmonic spectroscopy and XUV/near-IR pump probe experiments requiring long acquisition times.

We describe the versatile features of the attosecond beamline recently installed at CEA-Saclay on the PLFA kHz laser. It combines a fine and very complete set of diagnostics enabling high harmonic spectroscopy (HHS) through the advanced characterization of the amplitude, phase, and polarization of the harmonic emission. It also allows a variety of photo-ionization experiments using magnetic bottle and COLTRIMS (COLd Target Recoil Ion Momentum Microscopy) electron spectrometers that may be used simultaneously, thanks to a two-foci configuration. Using both passive and active stabilization, special care was paid to the long term stability of the system to allow, using both experimental approaches, time resolved studies with attosecond precision, typically over several hours of acquisition times. As an illustration, applications to multi-orbital HHS and electron-ion coincidence time resolved spectroscopy are presented.

Electron-pair excitations and the molecular Coulomb continuum.

Electron-pair excitations in the molecular hydrogen continuum are described by quantizing rotations of the momentum plane of the electron pair about the pair's relative momentum. A heliumlike description of the molecular photodouble ionization is thus extended to higher angular momenta of the electron pair. A simple three-state superposition is found to account surprisingly well for recent observations of noncoplanar electron-pair, molecular-axis angular distributions.

Physical interpretation of the "kinetic energy release" effect in the double photoionization of H(2).

A physical interpretation is given for the variation with internuclear separation of the fully differential cross section for double photoionization of H2. This effect is analyzed in a geometry where the fourbody interaction is completely probed. Excellent agreement is found between experiment and time-dependent close-coupling theory after convoluting the latter over the relevant solid angles. We show the observed variations are purely due to the epsilon(Sigma) component of the polarization vector epsilon along the molecular axis, a conclusion which is supported through calculations of the photoionization of H2(+).

Photodouble ionization dynamics for fixed-in-space H2.

The Coulomb explosion of the hydrogen molecule, after absorption of a 76 eV photon, has been studied by momentum imaging the two electrons and the two protons. Absolute fully differential cross sections of high statistical quality are obtained. A subset of the overall data, namely, equal electron-energy sharing, is used to investigate the effects of molecular orientation on the photoelectron angular distribution. Departures from the first-order helium-like model are evident in detection geometries where electron-electron correlation is "frozen."

Double photoionization of helium down to 100 meV above threshold.

Double photoionization of helium has been studied using a new instrument which allows one to detect the two emitted electrons over 4 pi steradians and measure their individual momenta. The experiments have been performed at 0.2 and 0.1 eV above threshold, and both double and triple differential cross sections have been extracted. In comparison with higher energy data, the results show that the strength of angular correlation between the two electrons increases towards threshold.

Coherence of nondegenerate states studied by auger electron-photoelectron coincidence experiments in Kr.

The indirect double photoionization of Kr via the Kr+(3d(-1)(3/2,5/2)) states to the Kr2+(4s4p(5) (1)P(o)) final state has been studied by Auger electron-photoelectron angular resolved coincidence experiments. By tuning the incident photon energy, we succeeded in observing the coherence in the photoionization of two nondegenerate spin-orbit states. The observations have been described quantitatively by a model which accounts for the two pathways to the final state as well as for the indistinguishability of the two ejected electrons.