Phys.org December 23, 2022
Tunnel ionization is of paramount importance in strong-field physics and attoscience. However, the tunneling dynamics and properties of the outgoing electronic wave packets often remain hidden beneath the influence of the subsequent scattering of the released electron onto the ionic potential. An international team of researchers (France, Israel) has characterized the influence of sub-barrier dynamics on the amplitude and phase of the wave packets emerging from the tunnel using chiral molecules, whose photoionization by circularly polarized light produces forward-backward asymmetric electron distributions with respect to the light propagation direction. The asymmetric patterns provided a background-free signature of the chiral potential in the ionization process. They used numerical simulations to interpret the electron interference patterns inherent to this interaction scheme. They showed that the combined action of the chiral potential and rotating laser field imprints asymmetric ionization amplitudes during the tunneling process and induces a forward-backward asymmetric phase profile onto the outgoing electron wave packets. Chiral light-matter interaction thus induces subtle angular-dependent shaping of both the amplitude and the phase of tunneling wave packets…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Schematic view of sub-barrier and continuum electron dynamics in strong-field ionization… Credit: Phys. Rev. X 11, 041056, 21 December 2021Â