Attosecond Electron Spectroscopy Using a Novel Interferometric Pump-Probe Technique

Journal Article · Fri Jul 30 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.105.053001· OSTI ID:21410948

Mauritsson, J; Remetter, T; Swoboda, M; Kluender, K; L'Huillier, A ^[1]; Schafer, K J ^[2]; Ghafur, O; Kelkensberg, F; Siu, W; Johnsson, P ^[3]; Vrakking, M J. J. ^[3]; Znakovskaya, I; Uphues, T; Zherebtsov, S; Kling, M F ^[4]; Lepine, F ^[5]; Benedetti, E; Ferrari, F; Sansone, G; Nisoli, M ^[6]

---

1. Department of Physics, Lund Institute of Technology, P. O. Box 118, SE-221 00 Lund (Sweden)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803-4001 (United States)
3. FOM-Institute AMOLF, Science park 113, 1098 XG Amsterdam (Netherlands)
4. 4 Max-Planck-Institut fuer Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Strasse 1, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
5. Universite Lyon 1, CNRS, LASIM, UMR 5579, 43 bvd. du 11 novembre 1918, F-69622 Villeurbanne (France)
6. Politecnico di Milano, Department of Physics Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, CNR-IFN Piazza L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano (Italy)

We present an interferometric pump-probe technique for the characterization of attosecond electron wave packets (WPs) that uses a free WP as a reference to measure a bound WP. We demonstrate our method by exciting helium atoms using an attosecond pulse (AP) with a bandwidth centered near the ionization threshold, thus creating both a bound and a free WP simultaneously. After a variable delay, the bound WP is ionized by a few-cycle infrared laser precisely synchronized to the original AP. By measuring the delay-dependent photoelectron spectrum we obtain an interferogram that contains both quantum beats as well as multipath interference. Analysis of the interferogram allows us to determine the bound WP components with a spectral resolution much better than the inverse of the AP duration.

• OSTI ID: 21410948
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.053001; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATOMS
ELECTRONS
HELIUM
INTERFERENCE
IONIZATION
LASERS
PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
PROBES
PULSES
RESOLUTION
WAVE PACKETS
ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
FERMIONS
FLUIDS
GASES
LEPTONS
NONMETALS
RARE GASES
SPECTROSCOPY