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Main Authors: Köhnke, Darius, Ahlswede, Hans-Christian, Bayer, Tim, Wollenhaupt, Matthias
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.19290
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author Köhnke, Darius
Ahlswede, Hans-Christian
Bayer, Tim
Wollenhaupt, Matthias
author_facet Köhnke, Darius
Ahlswede, Hans-Christian
Bayer, Tim
Wollenhaupt, Matthias
contents We report the first observation of free-electron angular momentum wave packets generated by atomic multiphoton ionization with bichromatic three-dimensional (3D) polarization-tailored ultrashort laser fields. These fields, created by the non-collinear superposition of two polarization-shaped pulses of different colors from a supercontinuum polarization pulse shaper, provide electric-field components along all spatial directions. The resulting photoelectron momentum distributions, recorded via velocity map imaging, demonstrate full 3D coherent control of electronic superposition states extending beyond the constraints of planar polarization fields by unlocking all dipole selection rules $Δm = 0,\pm1$. As an application, 3D pump-probe fields are used to image previously unobserved photoelectron wave packets mapping spin-orbit dynamics of the potassium $3d$ fine structure doublet. Our shaper-based approach establishes a route to fully controllable 3D light fields for chiral-sensitive light-matter interactions and ultrafast spectroscopy.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_19290
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multiphoton ionization with three-dimensional light fields
Köhnke, Darius
Ahlswede, Hans-Christian
Bayer, Tim
Wollenhaupt, Matthias
Atomic Physics
We report the first observation of free-electron angular momentum wave packets generated by atomic multiphoton ionization with bichromatic three-dimensional (3D) polarization-tailored ultrashort laser fields. These fields, created by the non-collinear superposition of two polarization-shaped pulses of different colors from a supercontinuum polarization pulse shaper, provide electric-field components along all spatial directions. The resulting photoelectron momentum distributions, recorded via velocity map imaging, demonstrate full 3D coherent control of electronic superposition states extending beyond the constraints of planar polarization fields by unlocking all dipole selection rules $Δm = 0,\pm1$. As an application, 3D pump-probe fields are used to image previously unobserved photoelectron wave packets mapping spin-orbit dynamics of the potassium $3d$ fine structure doublet. Our shaper-based approach establishes a route to fully controllable 3D light fields for chiral-sensitive light-matter interactions and ultrafast spectroscopy.
title Multiphoton ionization with three-dimensional light fields
topic Atomic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.19290