Abstract

We consider few-photon ionization of atomic lithium by linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulses and demonstrate that asymmetries of the electron angular distribution can occur for initially polarized (2p, m=+1) target atoms. The dependence of the photoelectron emission angle relative to the electric field direction is investigated at different laser intensities and wavelengths. The experimental spectra show excellent agreement with numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. In the perturbative picture, the angular shift is traced back to interferences between partial waves with mean magnetic quantum number (m)≠0. This observation allows us to obtain quantum mechanical information on the final electronic state.

Department(s)

Physics

Comments

The experimental material presented here is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY-1554776. The theoretical part of this work was funded by the NSF under Grants No. PHY-2012078 (M.D. and N.D.), No. PHY-1803844, and No. PHY-2110023 (K.B.) and by the XSEDE supercomputer allocation No. PHY-090031.

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2469-9934; 2469-9926

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2021 American Physical Society (APS), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

05 Nov 2021

Included in

Physics Commons

Share

 
COinS