Streaking temporal double slit interference by an orthogonal two-color laser field

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a two-color orthogonal laser field can control and enhance intracycle interference patterns in electron momentum distributions during single ionization of argon, enabling detailed study of quantum interference effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel two-color laser scheme to manipulate and resolve intracycle interference in electron momentum distributions, providing new insights into electron dynamics under strong fields.

Findings

Interference patterns become dominant with two-color control.

Second color acts as a which-way marker, affecting interference visibility.

Interference fringe visibility depends on the phase between the two pulses.

Abstract

We investigate electron momentum distributions from single ionization of Ar by two orthogonally polarized laser pulses of different color. The two-color scheme is used to experimentally control the interference between electron wave packets released at different times within one laser cycle. This intracycle interference pattern is typically hard to resolve in an experiment. With the two-color control scheme these features become the dominant contribution to the electron momentum distribution. Furthermore the second color can be used for streaking of the otherwise interfering wave packets establishing a which-way marker. Our investigation shows that the visibility of the interference fringes depends on the degree of the which-way information determined by the controllable phase between the two pulses.