Ultrafast dynamics of multiphoton photoemission from gold and carrier-envelope phase sensitivity

Abstract

Multiphoton-induced photoelectron emission from gold as a potential candidate for a direct carrier-envelope phase stabilization scheme of CPA lasers was investigated. Since previous experiments showed unexpectedly low carrier-envelope phase sensitivity of the overall photoemission electron yield, we used ultrashort pulses and an autocorrelation method to assess additional effects influencing carrier-envelope phase dependence. The third-order interferometric autocorrelation curve taken by using the gold surface as the higher order detector showed short side-wings indicating ultrafast hot electron dynamics reducing the phase contrast.