  Plasmas with anisotropic electron velocity distribution functions are needed
for the controlled study of kinetic plasma instabilities in the laboratory. We
demonstrate that such plasma can be produced using ultrashort laser pulses via
optical-field ionization (OFI). We experimentally show this control by using
Thomson scattering as a diagnostic to probe the characteristic electron
velocity distributions using linearly and circularly polarized laser pulses to
ionize helium. Furthermore the He plasma produced by a circularly polarized
light pulse exhibits the onset of the electron streaming instability within 300
fs of ionization, demonstrating applicability of OFI generated plasmas for
studying the kinetic theory regime of plasma physics.
