Restoring function of the orbiting electron wave packet

Attosecond electron wave packet interferometry

Shaping an atomic electron wave packet.

We consider coherent control of the shape of an atomic electron's wavefunction using a train of short transform-limited laser pulses. This type of control is experimentally demonstrated by exciting with a train of three pulses and measuring the resulting quantum state distribution. We also present a general theory for control with a train of N pulses in the weak field limit and discuss the exte...

Steering the electron in H2(+) by nuclear wave packet dynamics.

By combining carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stable light fields and the traditional method of optical pump-probe spectroscopy we study electron localization in dissociating H2(+) molecular ions. Localization and localizability of electrons is observed to strongly depend on the time delay between the two CEP-stable laser pulses with a characteristic periodicity corresponding to the oscillating mol...

Coherent imaging of an attosecond electron wave packet.

Electrons detached from atoms or molecules by photoionization carry information about the quantum state from which they originate, as well as the continuum states into which they are released. Generally, the photoelectron momentum distribution is composed of a coherent sum of angular momentum components, each with an amplitude and phase. Here we show, by using photoionization of neon, that a tr...

Excitation of a Three-Dimensionally Localized Atomic Electron Wave Packet

We have prepared an atomic electron in a three-dimensionally localized wave packet that travels along a highly eccentric orbit between the nucleus and a turning point approximately 1000 Å away. State preparation consisted of two distinct steps. First the electron wave function was localized to the desired orbit by exciting a stationary extreme Stark state from the n 30 manifold of a sodium atom...