Intensity determination of superintense laser pulses via ionization fraction in the relativistic tunnelling regime

Abstract

We address the quantum tunnelling (QT) effect in the scheme that retrieves the laser intensity via the ionization fraction of multiply charged ions proposed recently. Our discussions are based on both the analytical tunnelling rate formula and numerical calculations using the classical trajectory Monte Carlo + tunnelling (CTMC-T) technique. Both approaches show that the correction from the QT effect is up to one order of magnitude.