Attosecond electronic recollision as field detector

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method combining EUV interferometry and attosecond pulse generation to fully reconstruct the electric field of low-energy visible-infrared pulses, including their polarization states.

Contribution

It presents a new technique for complete electric field reconstruction of weak pulses using attosecond recollision and interferometry, enabling detailed pulse characterization.

Findings

Successful reconstruction of electric field vectors for low-energy pulses

Ability to characterize arbitrary polarization states

Demonstration of technique with nanojoule energy pulses

Abstract

We demonstrate the complete reconstruction of the electric field of visible-infrared pulses with energy as low as a few tens of nanojoules. The technique allows for the reconstruction of the instantaneous electric field vector direction and magnitude, thus giving access to the characterisation of pulses with an arbitrary time-dependent polarisation state. The technique combines extreme ultraviolet interferometry with the generation of isolated attosecond pulses.