Measuring the quantum state of photoelectrons
Preprint, 2023
A photoelectron, emitted due to the absorption of light quanta as described by the photoelectric effect, is often characterized experimentally by a classical quantity, its momentum. However, since the photoelectron is a quantum object, its rigorous characterization requires the reconstruction of the complete quantum state, the photoelectron's density matrix. Here, we use quantum state tomography to fully characterize photoelectrons emitted from helium and argon atoms upon absorption of ultrashort, extreme ultraviolet light pulses. While in helium we measure a pure photoelectronic state, in argon, spin-orbit interaction induces entanglement between the ion and the photoelectron, leading to a reduced purity of the photoelectron state. Our work shows how state tomography gives new insights into the fundamental quantum aspects of light-induced electronic processes in matter, bridging the fields of photoelectron spectroscopy and quantum information, and offering new spectroscopic possibilities for quantum technology.
photoelectron
quantum physics
attosecond physics
spectroscopy
quantum information
quantum tomography
Författare
Hugo Laurell
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lunds universitet
Sizou Luo
Lunds universitet
Robin Weissenbilder
Lunds universitet
Mattias Ammitzböll
Lunds universitet
Shahnawaz Ahmed
Chalmers, Mikroteknologi och nanovetenskap, Tillämpad kvantfysik
Hugo Söderberg
Lunds universitet
C. Leon. M. Petersson
Alba Nova Universitetscentrum
Vénus Poulain
Lunds universitet
Chen Guo
Lunds universitet
Christoph Dittel
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Daniel Finkelstein-Shapiro
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Richard Squibb
Institutionen för fysik, GU
Raimund Feifel
Institutionen för fysik, GU
Mathieu Gisselbrecht
Lunds universitet
Cord L. Arnold
Lunds universitet
Andreas Buchleitner
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Eva Lindroth
Stockholms universitet
Anton Frisk Kockum
Chalmers, Mikroteknologi och nanovetenskap, Tillämpad kvantfysik
Anne L’Huillier
Lunds universitet
Fundament
Grundläggande vetenskaper
Ämneskategorier
Atom- och molekylfysik och optik
Den kondenserade materiens fysik
DOI
10.48550/arXiv.2309.13945