Attosecond time-resolved photoelectron holography

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 2805 - 6
• Main Authors: Porat, G, Alon, G, Rozen, S, Pedatzur, O, Krüger, M, Azoury, D, Natan, A, Orenstein, G, Bruner, B D, Vrakking, M J J, Dudovich, N
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 18.07.2018; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Approximation; Electron diffraction; Harmonic generations; Holography; Ionization; Lasers; Photoelectrons; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Quantum phenomena; Quantum tunnelling
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05185-6

Ultrafast strong-field physics provides insight into quantum phenomena that evolve on an attosecond time scale, the most fundamental of which is quantum tunneling. The tunneling process initiates a range of strong field phenomena such as high harmonic generation (HHG), laser-induced electron diffraction, double ionization and photoelectron holography-all evolving during a fraction of the optical cycle. Here we apply attosecond photoelectron holography as a method to resolve the temporal properties of the tunneling process. Adding a weak second harmonic (SH) field to a strong fundamental laser field enables us to reconstruct the ionization times of photoelectrons that play a role in the formation of a photoelectron hologram with attosecond precision. We decouple the contributions of the two arms of the hologram and resolve the subtle differences in their ionization times, separated by only a few tens of attoseconds.