Laser-Induced Recombination of D(+)

Laser induced recombination into the L shell (n = 2) of deuterium was investigated at the heavy-ion cooler storage ring CRYRING for two values of the electron density. The data shows the expected enhancement of radiative recombination, induced by the intense laser field applied, over the spontaneous case. Like in previous measurements, a strong intensity below the photoionization threshold was observed. Qualitatively, this gain is described by an average field induced threshold shift model. However, when reducing the electron density by roughly a factor of two, the effective field increased by an order of magnitude. This surprising result indicates that the precise origin of the observed fields is not simply related to the known field sources.