Using attosecond pulses to probe ultrafast electronic motions inside atoms

Lee A. Collins, S. X. Hu, Barry I. Schneider

Wei-Chun Chu, C. D. Lin

S. X. Hu, Lee A. Collins

The attosecond pump probe, in close analogy to the standard femtosecond probing technique, has been proposed and theoretically demonstrated with its application to explore ultrafast electron motions inside atoms. We have performed realistic modeling for the full dynamics of both the femtosecond pumping and the attosecond probing processes. Our simulations have illustrated that an ultrashort oscillation period of 2.0 fs can be mapped out for a wave packet in low-lying excited states of the helium atom. This opens the prospect of a wealth of similar pump probe experiments to examine ultrafast electronic or atomic motions.

Minghui Xu, Liang-You Peng, Zheng Zhang +1 more

We present a theoretical study of photoelectron emission of a homonuclear molecule by an attosecond xuv pulse, which can be regarded as a natural double-slit experiment. We show that attosecond electron motion inside the molecule opens one to two 'slits' for photoionization. Interference fringes in the angle-resolved photoelectron momentum distributions exhibit varying visibility (V), depending on the degree of which-path information (P). The complementarity relation, P2 + V2 ≤ 1, is verified in the time-dependent molecule double-slit experiment. Hence, the electron motion can be easily mapped out by measuring the interference visibility. This opens up the prospect of employing interferometric techniques to probe ultrafast intramolecular electronic motions.

M. Schuttze, Matthias Uiberacker, Thorsten Uphues +15 more

Matthias Uiberacker, Thorsten Uphues, Martin Schultze +15 more