DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Attosecond transient absorption of a bound wave packet coupled to a smooth continuum

Journal Article · · Journal of Optics

Here, we investigate the possibility of using transient absorption of a coherent bound electron wave packet in hydrogen as an attosecond pulse characterization technique. In a recent work, we have shown that photoionization of such a coherent bound electron wave packet opens up for pulse characterization with unprecedented temporal accuracy—independent of the atomic structure—with maximal photoemission at all kinetic energies given a wave packet with zero relative phase. Here, we perform numerical propagation of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation and analytical calculations based on perturbation theory to show that the energy-resolved maximal absorption of photons from the attosecond pulse does not uniquely occur at a zero relative phase of the initial wave packet. Instead, maximal absorption occurs at different relative wave packet phases, distributed as a non-monotonous function with a smooth $$-\pi /2$$ shift across the central photon energy (given a Fourier-limited Gaussian pulse). Similar results are also found in helium. Our finding is surprising, because it implies that the energy-resolved photoelectrons are not mapped one-to-one with the energy-resolved absorbed photons of the attosecond pulse.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1410602
Journal Information:
Journal of Optics, Journal Name: Journal of Optics Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 19; ISSN 2040-8978
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (24)

Observation of a Train of Attosecond Pulses from High Harmonic Generation journal June 2001
Study of attosecond delays using perturbation diagrams and exterior complex scaling text January 2014
The definition of molecular resonance curves by the method of exterior complex scaling journal April 1979
Probing ultrafast dynamics with attosecond transient absorption journal March 2015
Femtochemistry:  Atomic-Scale Dynamics of the Chemical Bond journal June 2000
Real-time observation of valence electron motion journal August 2010
Reconstruction and control of a time-dependent two-electron wave packet journal December 2014
State-resolved attosecond reversible and irreversible dynamics in strong optical fields journal February 2017
Solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation using complex-coordinate contours journal June 1991
Infinite-range exterior complex scaling as a perfect absorber in time-dependent problems journal May 2010
Implementation of the time-dependent configuration-interaction singles method for atomic strong-field processes journal August 2010
Diagrammatic approach to attosecond delays in photoionization journal December 2012
Theory of attosecond transient-absorption spectroscopy of krypton for overlapping pump and probe pulses journal December 2012
Absorption and emission of single attosecond light pulses in an autoionizing gaseous medium dressed by a time-delayed control field journal January 2013
Ionization delays in few-cycle-pulse multiphoton quantum-beat spectroscopy in helium journal February 2016
Eliminating the dipole phase in attosecond pulse characterization using Rydberg wave packets journal July 2016
Attosecond counter-rotating-wave effect in xenon driven by strong fields journal May 2017
Attosecond Time-Resolved Autoionization of Argon journal October 2010
Attosecond physics journal February 2009
Modern Quantum Mechanics journal July 1986
Synthesized Light Transients journal September 2011
Lorentz Meets Fano in Spectral Line Shapes: A Universal Phase and Its Laser Control journal May 2013
Time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy with a water window high-harmonic source journal January 2017
A Practical Guide to Splines. journal January 1980

Cited By (4)

Pulse analysis by delayed absorption from a coherently excited atom journal January 2019
Emerging attosecond technologies journal October 2018
Attosecond precision in delay measurements using transient absorption spectroscopy journal January 2019
Pulse analysis by delayed absorption from a coherently excited atom preprint January 2018