Dynamical Phase Evolution of Coulomb-Focused Electrons in Strong-Field Ionization Probed by a Standing Light Wave
We investigate the dynamical phase evolution of Coulomb-focused electrons in strong-field ionization. We diffract the electrons with an ultrashort standing light wave to track their time-dependent phase. Our findings show that low-energy electrons exhibit a unique chromosome-shaped diffraction pattern, distinct from higher-energy electrons. Our numerical model quantitatively reproduces the experimental results, confirming this pattern maps the electron's time-dependent phase evolution as it escapes from a Coulomb potential. Our pulsed diffraction grating technique offers a new way to sense an electron's quantum phase at very large distances without interfering its release mechanism.
Authors
- T. Jahnke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1358-5629)
- Juan Du (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2077-3337)
- M. Kunitski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6543-8722)
- Ai‐Ling Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5197-2219)
- Zichen Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1790-0385)
- Peilun He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2740-3390)
- Kang Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2949-0029)
- S. Eckart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9245-9059)
- Weiran Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9915-6982)
- Lei Ying (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2489-9298)
- Yuan Gu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2723-9367)
- Sina Jacob (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8060-5645)
- Jiaye Zhang
- R. Dörner
- Hao Liang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5709-2634)
- Jan-Michael Rost
Institutions
- Goethe University Frankfurt (DE)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN)
- Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE)
- Zhejiang University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2026-02-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/63v1-3b63
- Primary Topic
- Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00