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Attosecond angular streaking

Nature Physics volume 4, pages 565–570 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Ultrashort measurement-time resolution is traditionally obtained in pump–probe experiments, for which two ultrashort light pulses are required; the time resolution is then determined by the pulse duration. But although pulses of subfemtosecond duration are available, so far the energy of these pulses is too low to fully implement the traditional pump–probe technique. Here, we demonstrate ‘attosecond angular streaking’, an alternative approach to achieving attosecond time resolution. The method uses the rotating electric-field vector of an intense circularly polarized pulse to deflect photo-ionized electrons in the radial spatial direction; the instant of ionization is then mapped to the final angle of the momentum vector in the polarization plane. We resolved subcycle dynamics in tunnelling ionization by the streaking field alone and demonstrate a temporal localization accuracy of 24 as r.m.s. and an estimated resolution of ≈200 as. The demonstrated accuracy should enable the study of one of the fundamental aspects of quantum physics: the process of tunnelling of an electron through an energetically forbidden region.

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Figure 1: CEP in circularly and elliptically polarized few-cycle pulses.
Figure 2: Overview of the measured helium-ion momentum distributions while scanning the CEP over 2π and comparison with a semiclassical simulation.
Figure 3: CEP dependence of the ionization angle in He using attosecond angular streaking.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NCCR Quantum Photonics (NCCR QP), research instruments of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the A.-v.-H. Stiftung, the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. We gratefully acknowledge stimulating discussions with P. B. Corkum and M. Büttiker.

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Author notes

  1. Mathias Smolarski & Jens Biegert

    Present address: Current Address: ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, Mediterranean Technology Park, 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona), Spain,

  2. Philip Schlup

    Present address: Current Address: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA,

  3. André Staudte

    Present address: Current Address: Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences, National Research Council of Canada, 100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R6, Canada,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Physik, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 16, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland

    Petrissa Eckle, Philip Schlup, Jens Biegert & Ursula Keller

  2. Institut für Kernphysik, Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Max-von-Laue-Str. 1, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Mathias Smolarski, André Staudte, Markus Schöffler & Reinhard Dörner

  3. FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Harm G. Muller

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Eckle, P., Smolarski, M., Schlup, P. et al. Attosecond angular streaking. Nature Phys 4, 565–570 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys982

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