Optical Measurement of Photorecombination Time Delays

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an optical method to measure photorecombination time delays by perturbing recollision trajectories with an infrared field, revealing insights into electronic structure and multielectron dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optical approach to measure ultrafast electron dynamics and recollision time delays, linking recollision trajectories to electronic structure in complex systems.

Findings

Photorecombination delays can be measured optically using the Cooper minimum in argon.

Recollision trajectories are influenced by the parent ion, contrary to previous assumptions.

The method enables studies of ultrafast electron dynamics in molecules and solids.

Abstract

Recollision physics and attosecond pulse generation meld the precision of optics with collision physics. As a follow-up to our previous work, we reveal a new direction for the study of electronic structure and multielectron dynamics by exploiting the collision-physics nature of recollision. We show experimentally that, by perturbing recollision trajectories with an infrared field, photorecombination time delays can be measured entirely optically using the Cooper minimum in argon as an example. In doing so, we demonstrate the relationship between recollision trajectories and the transition moment coupling the ground and continuum states. In particular, we show that recollision trajectories are influenced by their parent ion, while it is commonly assumed they are not. Our work paves the way for the entirely optical measurement of ultrafast electron dynamics and photorecombination delays due to electronic structure, multielectron interaction, and strong-field driven dynamics in complex molecular systems and correlated solid-state systems.