Directional loss of contrast by dephasing in temporal double-slit interferometry

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel attosecond double-slit streak camera scheme to observe polarization-dependent information loss due to dephasing, revealing contrast loss in electron interference patterns influenced by IR pulse waveform.

Contribution

It proposes a new attosecond interferometry method to visualize polarization-dependent dephasing effects in electron wavepackets.

Findings

Contrast diminishes along the IR polarization axis.

Dephasing causes loss of interference contrast.

Contrast sensitivity depends on IR waveform.

Abstract

Attosecond streaking camera is an ex situ technique in which a linearly polarized (LP) XUV attopulse produces an electron wavepacket by photoionization in the presence of an IR femtopulse. By moving the two synchronous oppositely circularly polarized XUV pulses (that make the ionizing LP pulse) apart in time, we propose an attosecond double-slit streak camera scheme to see information loss in polarization-dependent two-slit phenomena. Such streaking interferogram is then composed of several Feynman's thought experiments in time domain, in which electrons are affected by the IR pulse as they exit the two attoslits upon XUV ionization processes to form Archimedean spiral patterns. As a proof-of-principle, when the IR femtofield and first XUV attopulse are synchronous, a loss of contrast through dephasing is seen in the simulated momentum and energy distributions of the photoelectron. It is shown that the contrast between bright and dark interference fringes diminishes predominantly along the IR-field polarization axis and is sensitive to the IR-field waveform. Our which-time information scheme provides further confirmation of the wave-particle duality.