Abstract
Single-photon ionization is one of the most fundamental light matter interactions in nature, serving as a universal probe of the quantum state of matter. By probing the emitted electron, one can decode the full dynamics of the interaction. When photo-ionization is evolving in the presence of a strong laser field, the fundamental properties of the mechanism can be signicantly altered. Here we demonstrate how the liberated electron can perform a self-probing measurement of such interaction with attosecond precision. Extreme ultraviolet attosecond pulses initiate an electron wavepacket by photo-ionization, a strong infrared field controls its motion, and finally electron–ion collision maps it into re-emission of attosecond radiation bursts. Our measurements resolve the internal clock provided by the self-probing mechanism, obtaining a direct insight into the build-up of photo-ionization in the presence of the strong laser field.
Highlights
Single-photon ionization is one of the most fundamental light matter interactions in nature, serving as a universal probe of the quantum state of matter
One of the most important breakthroughs in ultrafast science was achieved with the production of attosecond (10−18 s) laser pulses in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) wavelength range via a process known as high harmonic generation (HHG)[1,2]
The attosecond pulse train (APT) consists of 4 discrete odd harmonics in the XUV ranging from 11ωIR to 17ωIR, where ωIR is the angular frequency of the IR field
Summary
Single-photon ionization is one of the most fundamental light matter interactions in nature, serving as a universal probe of the quantum state of matter. Driven by the laser field, the liberated electron wavepacket returns to the parent ion and probes the hole via radiative recombination, which leads to the emission of high-order harmonics of the driving laser field (Fig. 1a) This nonlinear parametric process, which starts and ends at the ground state of the system, serves as an internal clock, encoding the evolution of the system between ionization and recollision with attosecond precision. An alternative approach to generate high harmonics applies a photo-ionization process as the initial step of the recollision mechanism
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