Simultaneous observation of forward-backward attosecond photoelectron holography

TL;DR

This paper numerically investigates simultaneous forward and backward attosecond photoelectron holography in He+ driven by a few-cycle laser, identifying distinct interference patterns and proposing methods to distinguish them for molecular imaging.

Contribution

It introduces a combined analysis of forward and backward photoelectron holography patterns and proposes a method to distinguish these holography types, advancing attosecond molecular imaging.

Findings

Identified forward and backward rescattering holography patterns.

Proposed a method to distinguish backward holography from intracycle interference.

Demonstrated potential for dynamic molecular imaging using backward rescattering holography.

Abstract

Photoelectron angular momentum distribution of He+ driven by a few-cycle laser is investigated numerically. We simultaneously observe two dominant interference patterns with one shot of lasers by solving the 3D time-dependent Schrodinger equation (TDSE). The analysis of a semiclassical model identifies these two interference patterns as two kinds of photoelectron holography. The interference pattern with Pz > 0 is a kind of forward rescattering holography, which comes from the interference between direct (reference) and rescattered (signal) forward electrons ionized in the same quarter-cycle. The interference pattern with Pz < 0 is a kind of backward rescattering holography, which comes from the interference between direct electron ionized in the third quarter- cycle and rescattered backward electron ionized in the first quarter-cycle. Moreover, we propose a method to distinguish this backward rescattering holography and intracycle interference patterns of direct electrons. This is an important step for dynamic imaging of molecular structure and detecting electron in molecules on attosecond time scale by the backward rescattering attosecond photonelectron holography.