Measurement of Carrier-Envelope Phase and Field Strength of a Few-Cycle Pulse by Non-sequential Double Ionization

Abstract

We propose a method to measure the carrier-envelop phase (CEP) and the intensity of a few-cycle pulse by controlling the non-sequential double ionization (NSDI) process. By using an additional static electric field, we can change the momentum distribution of the double-charged ions parallel to the laser polarization from an asymmetrical double-hump structure to a nearly symmetrical one. It is found that the ratio between the strength of the static electric field and that of the laser field is sensitive to the CEP but robust against the intensity fiuctuation. Therefore we can determine the CEP of a few-cycle pulse precisely by measuring the static electric field. Furthermore, if the CEP of the few-cycle pulse is fixed at a certain value, we can also calibrate the intensity of the laser pulse by the static electric field.