Photoelectron holography from multiple-return backscattering electron orbits

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the photoelectron momentum distributions of a diatomic molecule in a linearly polarized two-color laser field by solving the time-dependent Schr\odinger equation. An upward curvature interference pattern is found in the two-dimensional photoelectron momentum spectra. Resorting to a simple semiclassical analysis and the strong-field approximation theory, we show that the interference pattern corresponds to a holographic pattern from the second-return backscattering electron orbits and, furthermore, the underlying physics of the distinct observation of such interference pattern is revealed. The holographic patterns from the backscattering electron orbits with the different return times may encode the information of the target structure at different times after ionization.