Attosecond-resolved photoionization of chiral molecules

Abstract

Chiral light-matter interactions have been investigated for two centuries, leading to the discovery of many chiroptical processes used for discrimination of enantiomers. Whereas most chiroptical effects result from a response of bound electrons, photoionization can produce much stronger chiral signals that manifest as asymmetries in the angular distribution of the photoelectrons along the light propagation axis. Here we implement a self-referenced attosecond photoelectron interferometry to measure the temporal profile of the forward and backward electron wavepackets emitted upon photoionization of camphor by circularly polarized laser pulses. We found a delay between electrons ejected forward and backward, which depends on the ejection angle and reaches 24 attoseconds. The asymmetric temporal shape of electron wavepackets emitted through an autoionizing state further reveals the chiral character of strongly-correlated electronic dynamics.

References in corpus (3)

• Attosecond dynamics through a Fano resonance: Monitoring the birth of a photoelectron
• Phase-resolved attosecond near-threshold photoionization of molecular nitrogen
• Relaxation Dynamics in Photoexcited Chiral Molecules Studied by Time-Resolved Photoelectron Circular Dichroism: Toward Chiral Femtochemistry

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• Photoelectron circular dichroism in angle-resolved photoemission from liquid fenchone
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• Unravelling inter-channel quantum interference in below-threshold nonsequential double ionization with statistical measures
• Carrier-envelope phase effects in one- and two-photon directional photoionization of non-isotropic atomic states