Attosecond-resolved photoionization of chiral molecules
Abstract
Chiral light-matter interactions have been investigated for two centuries, leading to the discovery of many chiroptical processes used for discrimination of enantiomers. Whereas most chiroptical effects result from a response of bound electrons, photoionization can produce much stronger chiral signals that manifest as asymmetries in the angular distribution of the photoelectrons along the light propagation axis. Here we implement a self-referenced attosecond photoelectron interferometry to measure the temporal profile of the forward and backward electron wavepackets emitted upon photoionization of camphor by circularly polarized laser pulses. We found a delay between electrons ejected forward and backward, which depends on the ejection angle and reaches 24 attoseconds. The asymmetric temporal shape of electron wavepackets emitted through an autoionizing state further reveals the chiral character of strongly-correlated electronic dynamics.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2004.05010,
title = {Attosecond-resolved photoionization of chiral molecules},
author = {Samuel Beaulieu and Antoine Comby and Alex Clergerie and Jérémie Caillat and Dominique Descamps and Nirit Dudovich and Baptiste Fabre and Romain Géneaux and François Légaré and Stéphane Petit and Bernard Pons and Gil Porat and Thierry Ruchon and Richard Taïeb and Valérie Blanchet and Yann Mairesse},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.05010},
year = {2020}
}