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It is clear that in a multiphoton process the pulse duration is what matters, determining how many photons are in a pulse is how you can calculate the ev output. I made up a chart that is 100% wrong but maybe you will all see how I'm going about this

Photoionizing N2 (15.58eV)

Wavelength      Pulse rate

80nm                             virtually nothing because there is always 1 photon
200nm                          100 picoseconds
500nm                          10 picoseconds
800nm                          1 picosecond
980nm                          50 femtoseconds
1064nm                        10 femtoseconds

Now I know this is 100% wrong but maybe you can help me by seeing how I'm going about this, in each column as the wavelength increases so do the pulses so you can still output the same eV.

Emilio Pisanty
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2 Answers2

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Just to be clear, multiphoton processes do not change the photon energy of the light (which is what you incorrectly call "the eV of the light"). Multiphoton processes simply use multiple photons to enable processes that require higher energies than are available with a single photon.

In addition, while the pulse duration is a relevant quantity to the probability of multiphoton processes, it is not a determining quantity. What matters is the intensity (or, equivalently, the photon flux density, i.e. the number of photons passing per unit transverse area per unit time). If you don't know the pulse energy and the focal-spot waist, the pulse duration is useless in finding it.

And, as mentioned in a previous answer, if what you want is to observe the sparks and pops of optical breakdown in air, the seed of the process might be multiphoton ionization, but the bulk of the ionization and plasma creation is via collisional ionization in an avalanche process where ionized electrons hit other molecules and knock other electrons out. (Just to be explicit about this: this is not what's normally understood by a multiphoton process.) As with multiphoton ionization, the pulse duration is relevant but it is not the only quantity of interest.


And as for this,

help me by seeing how I'm going about this

we can't help until you say what "this" is and what you actually want to achieve. If all you want is to see pretty sparks then just come out and say so straight-up, instead of continuously beating around the bush with questions that don't actually address what you really want to know.

Emilio Pisanty
  • 137,480
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I think i have finally made my mind click to hiw this process works, if my answer is wrong just tell me. So as emilio was saying you cant increase the ev of a laser by pulsing it, but each photon has its own "eV" (i quote it because i dont know if im using ev the right way) so in a 80nm laser each photons "ev" is 15.58 so it could photo ionize nitrogen. Now in a 980 nm wave each photon is 1.27ev you need ~12 photons to slam into the atom at such a fast rate that it basically gets hit with 15.58 ev. The onlything i still didnt figure out is pulse rate but is my take on the multiphoton process correct?

UPDATE: This is another guess but in each pulse i think there is only one photon, but if you pulse in femtoseconds, the laser will hit the atom so quick that the photon add up and ionize, if this is wrong please tell me