Abstract

We investigate the resonance-enhanced few-photon ionization of atomic lithium by linearly polarized light whose frequency is tuned near the 2s-2p transition. Considering the direction of light polarization orthogonal to the quantization axis, the process can be viewed as an atomic "double-slit experiment "where the 2p states with magnetic quantum numbers mℓ=±1 act as the slits. In our experiment, we can virtually close one of the two slits by preparing lithium in one of the two circularly polarized 2p states before subjecting it to the ionizing radiation. This allows us to extract the interference term between the two pathways and obtain complex phase information on the final state. The experimental results show very good agreement with numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The validity of the two-slit model is also analyzed theoretically using a time-dependent perturbative approach.

Department(s)

Physics

Comments

National Science Foundation, Grant 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

© 2023 American Physical Society, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Aug 2022

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Physics Commons

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