Continuous variable quantum state tomography of photoelectrons

TL;DR

This paper introduces a continuous variable quantum state tomography method for photoelectrons, enabling detailed analysis of quantum coherence and entanglement in ultrafast photoionization processes.

Contribution

It presents a novel tomography protocol for electrons from atom or molecule ionization, validated against calculations and capable of revealing quantum entanglement and coherence.

Findings

Successfully benchmarks the tomography protocol against theoretical calculations.

Distills ion-photoelectron entanglement due to spin-orbit splitting.

Enables investigation of quantum properties on ultrafast timescales.

Abstract

We propose a continuous variable quantum state tomography protocol of electrons which result from the ionization of atoms or molecules by the absorption of extreme ultraviolet light pulses. Our protocol is benchmarked against a direct calculation of the quantum state of photoelectrons ejected from helium and argon in the vicinity of a Fano resonance. In the latter case, we furthermore distill ion-photoelectron entanglement due to spin-orbit splitting. This opens new routes towards the investigation of quantum coherence and entanglement properties on the ultrafast timescale.