Generation of Picosecond Ion Pulses by Ultrafast Electron-Stimulated Desorption

We present an efficient method to produce laser-triggered proton pulses below 500 ps pulse width at keV energies. We use femtosecond photoelectron pulses emitted from a cathode to enable ultrafast electron-stimulated desorption of adsorbates on a stainless steel plate under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. While direct photoionization of atoms to form well-timed ion pulses can suffer from a laser-focus-limited large starting volume, in our method the starting plane of the ions is defined with nanometer precision at a solid surface. We clearly outline how the method could be used in the future to efficiently produce ion beam pulses in the (sub-)picosecond range for pump-probe experiments with ions.