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Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation
Published on: February 4, 2017
Momentum signatures for Schwinger pair production in short laser pulses with a subcycle structure
F Hebenstreit1, R Alkofer, G V Dunne
1Institut für Physik, Karl-Franzens Universität Graz, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
Abstract:
We investigate electron-positron pair production from vacuum for short laser pulses with a subcycle structure, in the nonperturbative regime (Schwinger pair production). We use the nonequilibrium quantum kinetic approach and show that the momentum spectrum of the created electron-positron pairs is extremely sensitive to the subcycle dynamics-depending on the laser frequency omega, the pulse length tau, and the carrier phase varphi-and shows several distinctive new signatures. This observation could not only help in the design of laser pulses to optimize the experimental signature of Schwinger pair production but also ultimately lead to new probes of light pulses at extremely short time scales.
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