Retrieval of experimental differential electron–ion elastic scattering cross sections from high-energy ATI spectra of rare gas atoms by infrared lasers

Abstract

Based on the concept of the recently developed quantitative rescattering theory for the momentum distributions of high-energy photoelectrons generated by infrared lasers, we applied the theory to extract large-angle elastic differential cross sections (DCS) of the target ions with free electrons. Using experimental photoelectron spectra for rare gas atoms of Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe, we showed that the extracted DCS are in good agreement with the DCS calculated theoretically. The current method of retrieval does not require precise knowledge of the peak laser intensities. The results show that accurate DCS between electron–ion scattering indeed can be retrieved from experimental photoelectron spectra generated by lasers, thus paving the way for using infrared laser pulses for dynamic chemical imaging of transient molecules with temporal resolution of few femtoseconds.