Attosecond tunnelling interferometry

An interferometric measurement based on high-harmonic generation now provides direct access to the electron wavefunction during field-induced tunnelling. Attosecond physics offers new insights into ultrafast quantum phenomena involving electron dynamics on the fastest measurable timescales. The rapi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature physics 2015-10, Vol.11 (10), p.815-819
Main Authors: Pedatzur, O., Orenstein, G., Serbinenko, V., Soifer, H., Bruner, B. D., Uzan, A. J., Brambila, D. S., Harvey, A. G., Torlina, L., Morales, F., Smirnova, O., Dudovich, N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Atomic
Classical and Continuum Physics
Complex Systems
Condensed Matter Physics
Electronics
Evolution
Interferometry
Ionization
Lasers
letter
Mathematical and Computational Physics
Molecular
Optical and Plasma Physics
Physics
Potential barriers
Temporal logic
Theoretical
Time
Tunnelling
Wavefunctions
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Summary:An interferometric measurement based on high-harmonic generation now provides direct access to the electron wavefunction during field-induced tunnelling. Attosecond physics offers new insights into ultrafast quantum phenomena involving electron dynamics on the fastest measurable timescales. The rapid progress in this field enables us to re-visit one of the most fundamental strong-field phenomena: field-induced tunnel ionization 1 , 2 , 3 . In this work, we employ high-harmonic generation to probe the electron wavefunction during field-induced tunnelling through a potential barrier. By using a combination of strong and weak driving laser fields, we modulate the atomic potential barrier on optical subcycle timescales. This induces a temporal interferometer between attosecond bursts originating from consecutive laser half-cycles. Our study provides direct insight into the basic properties of field-induced tunnelling, following the evolution of the electronic wavefunction within a temporal window of approximately 200 attoseconds.
ISSN:1745-2473
1745-2481
DOI:10.1038/nphys3436