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Atomic physics

Electrons get real

Nature volume 485, pages 313–314 (2012)Cite this article

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Strong laser fields allow electrons to tunnel out of atoms. The response of such electrons to a second laser field supports the idea that they start tunnelling at a time defined by a complex number, but exit atoms at a 'real' time. See Letter p.343

Physicists are perfectly aware that the microscopic behaviour of electrons cannot be understood without the laws of quantum theory. Nevertheless, when scientists trace the dynamics of subatomic phenomena, they like to ask questions that are motivated by a classical, non-quantum perspective. In this spirit, Shafir et al.1 report on page 343 the exact times at which electrons 'exit' atoms that are irradiated by a short flash of laser light. The existence of such an exit time is seemingly counter-intuitive, given that electrons are described by wavefunctions that extend smoothly from the inside to the outside of atoms — part of the electron is always outside the atom. In the presence of a laser field, however, there is a continuous outward flow of electron density, which Shafir and colleagues have decomposed into different electron trajectories, assigning each trajectory an experimentally determined starting time.

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Figure 1: Quantum tunnelling and high-harmonic generation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manfred Lein is at the Centre for Quantum Engineering and Space-Time Technology and at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, Leibniz Universität Hannover, 30167 Hanover, Germany.,

    Manfred Lein

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  1. Manfred Lein
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Correspondence to Manfred Lein.

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Lein, M. Electrons get real. Nature 485, 313–314 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/485313a

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