Twisted quantum interference in photoelectron holography with elliptically polarized fields

Abstract

We perform a systematic analysis of how ultrafast photoelectron holography is influenced by an elliptically polarized field, with emphasis on quantum interference effects. We find that the interplay of the external field and the binding potential leads to twisted holographic patterns for low ellipticities and recover well-known angular offsets for high ellipticities. Using the Coulomb quantum-orbit strong-field approximation, we assess how the field ellipticity affects specific holographic patterns, such as the fan and the spider. The interplay of the external field and the binding potential leads to twisted holographic patterns in the fan and to loss of contrast in the spider. This behavior can be traced back to interfering electron trajectories and unequal changes in tunneling probability due to nonvanishing ellipticity. We also derive tunneling times analytically using the strong-field approximation, provide estimates for ellipticity ranges for which interference is expected to be prominent, and discuss how to construct continuous electron momentum distributions exploring the rotation symmetry around the origin.