English

Strong-field chiral imaging with twisted photoelectrons

Atomic Physics 2023-03-08 v2 Optics

Abstract

Ultrafast imaging of molecular chirality is a key step towards the dream of imaging and interpreting electronic dynamics in complex and biologically relevant molecules. Here, we propose a new ultrafast chiral phenomenon exploiting recent advances in electron optics allowing access to the orbital angular momentum of free electrons. We show that strong-field ionization of a chiral target with a few-cycle linearly polarized 800 nm laser pulse yields photoelectron vortices, whose chirality reveals that of the target, and we discuss the mechanism underlying this phenomenon. Our work opens new perspectives in recollision-based chiral imaging.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2202.07289,
  title  = {Strong-field chiral imaging with twisted photoelectrons},
  author = {Xavier Barcons Planas and Andrés Ordóñez and Maciej Lewenstein and Andrew Stephen Maxwell},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.07289},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

4 pages main text, 2 figures, 8 equations