Using Circular Dichroism to Control Energy Transfer in Multiphoton Ionization
Department
Physics
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-15-2021
Abstract
Chirality causes symmetry breaks in a large variety of natural phenomena ranging from particle physics to biochemistry. We investigate one of the simplest conceivable chiral systems, a laser-excited, oriented, effective one-electron Li target. Prepared in a polarized p state with |m|=1 in an optical trap, the atoms are exposed to co- and counterrotating circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses. For a field frequency near the excitation energy of the oriented initial state, a strong circular dichroism is observed and the photoelectron energies are significantly affected by the helicity-dependent Autler-Townes splitting. Besides its fundamental relevance, this system is suited to create spin-polarized electron pulses with a reversible switch on a femtosecond timescale at an energy resolution of a few meV.
Journal Title
Physical Review Letters
Journal ISSN
1079-7114
Volume
126
Issue
2
First Page
023201
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.023201