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Title: Symmetry breakdown of electron emission in extreme ultraviolet photoionization of argon

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
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  1. European XFEL GmbH, Schenefeld (Germany); Univ. of Kassel, Kassel (Germany)
  2. Univ. of Kassel, Kassel (Germany); Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany)
  3. Lomonosov Moscow State Univ., Moscow (Russia)
  4. European XFEL GmbH, Schenefeld (Germany)
  5. Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste SCpA, Trieste (Italy)
  6. X-Spectrum GmbH, Hamburg (Germany)
  7. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany)
  8. European XFEL GmbH, Schenefeld (Germany); Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany)
  9. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  10. Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, Lausanne (Switzerland)
  11. Univ. of Kassel, Kassel (Germany)
  12. Qamcom Research & Technology AB, Gothenburg (Sweden)
  13. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland)
  14. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  15. Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste SCpA, Trieste (Italy); CNR, IOM, Trieste (Italy)
  16. European XFEL GmbH, Schenefeld (Germany); Lomonosov Moscow State Univ., Moscow (Russia)

Short wavelength free-electron lasers (FELs), providing pulses of ultrahigh photon intensity, have revolutionized spectroscopy on ionic targets. Their exceptional photon flux enables multiple photon absorptions within a single femtosecond pulse, which in turn allows for deep insights into the photoionization process itself as well as into evolving ionic states of a target. Here we employ ultraintense pulses from the FEL FERMI to spectroscopically investigate the sequential emission of electrons from gaseous, atomic argon in the neutral as well as the ionic ground state. A pronounced forward-backward symmetry breaking of the angularly resolved emission patterns with respect to the light propagation direction is experimentally observed and theoretically explained for the region of the Cooper minimum, where the asymmetry of electron emission is strongly enhanced. Furthermore, these findings aim to originate a better understanding of the fundamentals of photon momentum transfer in ionic matter.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1490647
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 25 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (7)

Fluorescence polarization as a precise tool for understanding nonsequential many-photon ionization journal July 2019
Recovery of High-Energy Photoelectron Circular Dichroism through Fano Interference journal July 2019
Photon Momentum Transfer in Single-Photon Double Ionization of Helium journal January 2020
Commissioning of a photoelectron spectrometer for soft X-ray photon diagnostics at the European XFEL journal May 2019
Recovery of High-Energy Photoelectron Circular Dichroism through Fano Interference text January 2019
Photon Momentum Transfer in Single-Photon Double Ionization of Helium text January 2020
Breakdown of the electric dipole approximation at Cooper minima in direct two-photon ionisation text January 2020

Figures / Tables (5)