Setting the photoelectron clock through molecular alignment

Andrea Trabattoni, Joss Wiese, Umberto De Giovannini, Jean-François Olivieri, Terry Mullins, Jolijn Onvlee, Sang-Kil Son, Biagio Frusteri, Angel Rubio, Sebastian Trippel, and Jochen Küpper

[BibTeX][pdf]doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16270-0

The interaction of strong laser fields with matter intrinsically provides a powerful tool for imaging transient dynamics with an extremely high spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we study strong-field ionisation of laser-aligned molecules, and show a full real-time picture of the photoelectron dynamics in the combined action of the laser field and the molecular interaction. We demonstrate that the molecule has a dramatic impact on the overall strong-field dynamics: it sets the clock for the emission of electrons with a given rescattering kinetic energy. This result represents a benchmark for the seminal statements of molecular-frame strong-field physics and has strong impact on the interpretation of self-diffraction experiments. Furthermore, the resulting encoding of the time-energy relation in molecular-frame photoelectron momentum distributions shows the way of probing the molecular potential in real-time, and accessing a deeper understanding of electron transport during strong-field interactions.

Tags: SFI, LIED, PAD, TDDFT, OCS, CFEL, DESY