Chiral Electron Momentum Distribution upon Strong-Field Ionization of Atoms
Abstract
We present a scheme to synthesize a three-dimensional laser field that produces a chiral electron momentum distribution upon strong-field ionization of atoms. Our approach employs two orthogonally propagating two-color laser beams. This results in a time-dependent three-dimensional electric field vector of the combined light field which varies for different positions within the focal volume. For each position, we conduct a simulation of the corresponding electron momentum distribution that includes non-adiabatic dynamics and Coulomb interaction after tunneling. For suitable laser parameters, only a small region of the focal volume contributes to the final momentum distribution. Thus, integrating over all position coordinates, a specific chiral laser field dominates. This leads to a volume-averaged electron momentum distribution, which is chiral, as well. This work will serve as a benchmark for future strong-field experiments aiming at the synthetization of well-defined, three-dimensional laser fields.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2504.08573,
title = {Chiral Electron Momentum Distribution upon Strong-Field Ionization of Atoms},
author = {A. Geyer and J. Stindl and I. Dwojak and M. Hofmann and N. Anders and P. Roth and P. Daum and J. Kruse and S. Jacob and S. Gurevich and N. Wong and M. S. Schöffler and L. Ph. H. Schmidt and T. Jahnke and M. Kunitski and R. Dörner and S. Eckart},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.08573},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Funded by the European Union (Horizon Europe, ERC-Starting Grant 3DTunneling, 101076166)