Circular dichroism in angular distribution of electron-hydrogen scattering in a two-color bicircular laser field

TL;DR

This paper investigates how two-color bicircular laser fields induce circular dichroism in electron-hydrogen scattering, deriving analytical formulas and analyzing the effects at various angles and intensities.

Contribution

It provides a new analytical framework for understanding circular dichroism in electron scattering under two-color bicircular laser fields, including the effects of field intensity ratios.

Findings

Strong circular dichroism can be induced at small scattering angles.

Dichroic effects depend on the intensity ratio of laser components.

Analytical formulas predict dichroism in weak-field, two-photon absorption regimes.

Abstract

We study the origin of dichroic effects in elastic scattering of high energy electrons by hydrogen atoms in the presence of a two-color bicircular laser field of commensurate frequencies, in the domain of moderate intensities below 10 TW/cm2 . We use a semiperturbative approach in which the interaction of the hydrogen atom with the laser field is treated in second-order perturbation theory, while the interaction of the projectile electron with the laser field is described by Gordon- Volkov wave functions. An analytical formula of circular dichroism in the angular distribution of scattered electrons is derived in the weak-field domain for a two-color laser field that is a combination of the fundamental and its third harmonic. A comparison between the two-photon differential cross sections for two-color co- and counterrotating circularly polarized laser fields is made and the effect of the intensity ratio of the monochromatic field components on the circular dichroism is investigated. The dichroic effect in the angular distribution of scattered electrons for two-photon absorption is analyzed as a function of the scattering and azimuthal angles. We show that the two-color bicircular laser field can induce a strong circular dichroism in the angular distribution of scattered electrons at small scattering angles where the atomic dressing effects are important, as well at larger scattering angles. At small scattering angles we demonstrate that the dichroic effect for two-photon transitions can be predicted under the following conditions: the scattering process is treated in fist-order Born approximation and the dressing of the atomic states by the laser field is carried out at least in first-order time-dependent perturbation theory.