DOI: 10.1126/science.1073866. Steering Attosecond Electron Wave Packets with Light

Steering Attosecond Electron Wave Packets with Light

10.1126/science.1073866

Crossref journal-article

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Science (221)

Abstract

Photoelectrons excited by extreme ultraviolet or x-ray photons in the presence of a strong laser field generally suffer a spread of their energies due to the absorption and emission of laser photons. We demonstrate that if the emitted electron wave packet is temporally confined to a small fraction of the oscillation period of the interacting light wave, its energy spectrum can be up- or downshifted by many times the laser photon energy without substantial broadening. The light wave can accelerate or decelerate the electron's drift velocity, i.e., steer the electron wave packet like a classical particle. This capability strictly relies on a sub-femtosecond duration of the ionizing x-ray pulse and on its timing to the phase of the light wave with a similar accuracy, offering a simple and potentially single-shot diagnostic tool for attosecond pump-probe spectroscopy.

Bibliography

Kienberger, R., Hentschel, M., Uiberacker, M., Spielmann, Ch., Kitzler, M., Scrinzi, A., Wieland, M., Westerwalbesloh, Th., Kleineberg, U., Heinzmann, U., Drescher, M., & Krausz, F. (2002). Steering Attosecond Electron Wave Packets with Light. Science, 297(5584), 1144â1148.

Authors 12

R. Kienberger (first)
M. Hentschel (additional)
M. Uiberacker (additional)
Ch. Spielmann (additional)
M. Kitzler (additional)
A. Scrinzi (additional)
M. Wieland (additional)
Th. Westerwalbesloh (additional)
U. Kleineberg (additional)
U. Heinzmann (additional)
M. Drescher (additional)
F. Krausz (additional)

References 33 Referenced 324

10.1103/PhysRevLett.39.269
10.1088/0953-4075/24/2/004
10.1103/PhysRevLett.73.2180
10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.2468
This applies in the nonrelativistic limit for interaction times short enough to prevent the electron from traveling distances comparable to or larger than the light wavelength during the interaction (dipole approximation). These conditions are fulfilled by femtosecond pulses of visible light at intensities below 10 18 W/cm 2 . In this intensity regime of interactions ponderomotive effects provide the only means of affecting electron motion by light. For ultrashort (<1 ps) pulse durations electrons released into a strong field lose energy equal to the ponderomotive potential of the laser which is transferred into a blue shift of the radiation (6). The ponderomotive potential of long pulses on the other hand is capable of modifying the momentum of free electrons (7).
10.1103/PhysRevLett.60.795
10.1103/PhysRevLett.58.349
10.1126/science.1058561
10.1038/35107000
10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.173903
10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.173904
10.1126/science.1059413
Krausz F., Opt. Photon 13, 62 (2002). / Opt. Photon by Krausz F. (2002)
In our detection geometry only electrons that are ejected with zero velocity in the direction orthogonal to the detection cone can be observed. These electrons experience only acceleration or deceleration by the field without any change in the direction of their momentum. However electrons with nonzero transversal velocity component are also ejected. These electrons are indeed steered because the laser field changes the direction of their motion. They could be observed by aligning the detection cone so that it forms a nonzero angle with the laser electric field vector.
Control of the electron's drift velocity could be previously accomplished by using a microwave field [
10.1103/PhysRevA.42.5703
A. L'Huillier
10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.774
10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.766
10.1364/OL.23.000064
E. S. Toma et al. Phys. Rev. A 62 061801(R) (2000).
10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.4289
10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.1251
10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.2971
10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.1837
10.1103/RevModPhys.72.545
10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.722
The harmonic spikes in the train corresponding to spectrum a in Fig. 3 are also predicted to emerge near the zero transition of the driving laser electric field. As a consequence only an up- and downshifted spectral feature would be expected if the spikes were not longer than T 0 /5 and the probe field E L ( t ) would be perfectly periodic. A blue shift near the laser pulse peak [induced by ionization in the harmonic generation process; see (9)] however impairs synchronism between the x-ray pulse sequence and the zero transitions of the probe laser field. In addition the spikes are predicted to carry a substantial chirp and hence to be broadened in the “plateau” region.
10.1038/35102520
Note that tiny variations in the peak laser intensity can make the harmonic structure more or less pronounced as revealed by spectra c and d in Fig. 3. However the modulation depth was kept below 25% in all measurements shown in Fig. 5 resulting in negligible fractional satellite energy content.
It is important to emphasize that this timing stability may not be valid for arbitrary values of the absolute phase φ of the driver pulse because laser shots characterized by a φ considerably deviating from 0 or π are expected to deliver only a small contribution to energy-shifted spectral features. As a consequence the evaluated upper limit on the timing jitter applies to laser pulses with φ ≈ 0 or π only.
This finding is in accordance with our recent measurement (9) resulting in almost zero phase distortion over the 5-eV bandwidth (FWHM) of the sub-femtosecond harmonic pulse generated under similar experimental conditions in the same spectral range.
The theory used extensively in this work (11) was developed under the guidance of T. Brabec. The transmission-grating x-ray spectrograph was provided by T. Wilhein and by G. Schmahl. The computer-controlled data acquisition system was significantly improved by M. Hornung. We had illuminating discussions with G. Reider. All contributions are gratefully acknowledged. Sponsored by the Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenchaftlichen Forschung in Österreich (Austria grants Y44-PHY and F016) the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany grants SPP1053 HE1049/9 and KL1077/1) and the European Union's Human Potential Programme under contract HPRN-2000-00133 (Atto).

Dates

Type	When
Created	22 years, 11 months ago (Oct. 1, 2002, 3:34 p.m.)
Deposited	1 year, 7 months ago (Jan. 9, 2024, 9:59 p.m.)
Indexed	4 weeks ago (Aug. 6, 2025, 8:53 a.m.)
Issued	23 years ago (Aug. 16, 2002)
Published	23 years ago (Aug. 16, 2002)
Published Print	23 years ago (Aug. 16, 2002)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Kienberger_2002, title={Steering Attosecond Electron Wave Packets with Light}, volume={297}, ISSN={1095-9203}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1073866}, DOI={10.1126/science.1073866}, number={5584}, journal={Science}, publisher={American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}, author={Kienberger, R. and Hentschel, M. and Uiberacker, M. and Spielmann, Ch. and Kitzler, M. and Scrinzi, A. and Wieland, M. and Westerwalbesloh, Th. and Kleineberg, U. and Heinzmann, U. and Drescher, M. and Krausz, F.}, year={2002}, month=aug, pages={1144–1148} }

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