Observation of Photoion Backward Emission in Photoionization of He and N2

Abstract

We experimentally investigate the effects of the linear photon momentum on the momentum distributions of photoions and photoelectrons generated in one-photon ionization in an energy range of 300 eV $\le E_{\gamma }\le$ 40 keV. Our results show that for each ionization event the photon momentum is imparted onto the photoion, which is essentially the system's center of mass. Nevertheless, the mean value of the ion momentum distribution along the light propagation direction is backward-directed by $-3/5$ times the photon momentum. These results experimentally confirm a 90 year old prediction.

5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Breakdown of the Dipole Approximation in Strong-Field Ionization
• Partitioning of the linear photon momentum in multiphoton ionization
• Recoil-Induced Asymmetry of Nondipole Molecular Frame Photoelectron Angular Distributions in the Hard X-ray Regime
• Photon-momentum-induced molecular dynamics in photoionization of N${}_2$ at $h\nu =40$ keV

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Zeptosecond Birth Time Delay in Molecular Photoionization
• Theory of Subcycle Linear Momentum Transfer in Strong-Field Tunneling Ionization
• Electric Nondipole Effect in Strong-Field Ionization
• Magnetic-field effect in high-order above-threshold ionization
• Nondipole Coulomb sub-barrier ionization dynamics and photon momentum sharing
• Chiral photoelectron angular distributions from ionization of achiral atomic and molecular species
• Controlling Magnetic and Electric Nondipole Effects with Synthesized Two Perpendicularly Propagating Laser Fields
• Selective Bond Breaking in CO${}_2^{2+}$ Induced by Photoelectron Recoil