Towards the control of photo-ionization with electron wave-packet interferences

Abstract: In this work the photoelectric effect is explored through simulations of the phase shift that an IR-field can induce into an electron wave packet and the photoelectron distribution over frequency components that is produced in the photoionization of an atom with a attosecond pulses made of XUV photons. The IR-field is sent along two attosecond pulses made of XUV photons towards a 3D momentum spectrometer were there is a gas that can be photoionized and the photoelectrons can be measured. The IR-field gives a phase shift to an electron wave packet (photoelectron). The XUV attosecond pulses can be Fourier transformed from time to frequency domains enabling to know the temporal structure and the spectrum of light fields. The kinetic energy distribution of the photoelectron is closely related to the XUV light field distribution in the frequency domain (spectrum), by applying the Einstein equation. However the intensity of the kinetic energy distribution follows the rules of quantum mechanics, and not the rules of optics. This study shows that analogies can be done within the framework of the strong field approximation. The simulated photoelectron distribution over frequency components were simulated with an IR-field with a wavelength of 820 nm, an intensity of 1012 W/cm^2, a momentum of 1.9 ·10^(−24) kg·m/s and a standard deviation of 0.3 PHz. The attosecond pulses made of XUV photons were set to have a standard deviation of 30 PHz and a frequency of 100 PHz. The separation between the attosecond pulses made of XUV photons was set to 1.3 fs. The phase shifted attosecond pulses made of XUV photons were plotted in order to give a picture of them. Then there Fourier transform was presented together with the phase shifts that was put into each XUV attosecond photon pulse. In the case with two attosecond pulses made of XUV photons the Fourier transform had to be shifted in time in order to make the result reasonable. In the case of two attosecond pulses made of XUV photons interesting patterns in the photoelectron distribution over frequency components occur. In order to explore the photoelectron distributions deeper more phase shifts have to be used in attosecond pulses made of XUV photons and then Fourier transformed. Thus giving more photoelectron distributions that can be studied.