Electron spin polarization in strong-field ionization of Xenon atoms

Alexander Hartung; Felipe Morales; Maksim Kunitski; Kevin Henrichs; Alina Laucke; Martin Richter; Till Jahnke; Anton Kalinin; Markus Schöffler; Lothar Ph. H. Schmidt; Misha Ivanov; Olga Smirnova; Reinhard Dörner

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2016.109

arXiv · 1702.02778

Electron spin polarization in strong-field ionization of Xenon atoms

Alexander Hartung·Felipe Morales·Maksim Kunitski·Kevin Henrichs·Alina Laucke·Martin Richter·Till Jahnke·Anton Kalinin·Markus Schöffler·Lothar Ph. H. Schmidt·Misha Ivanov·Olga Smirnova·Reinhard Dörner

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Abstract

As a fundamental property of the electron, the spin plays a decisive role in the electronic structure of matter from solids to molecules and atoms, e.g. causing magnetism. Yet, despite its importance, the spin dynamics of electrons released during the interaction of atoms with strong ultrashort laser pulses has remained unexplored. Here we report on the experimental detection of electron spin polarization by strong-field ionization of Xenon atoms and support our results by theoretical analysis. We found up to 30% spin polarization changing its sign with electron energy. This work opens the new dimension of spin to strong-field physics. It paves the way to production of subfemtosecond spin polarized electron pulses with applications ranging from probing magnetic properties of matter at ultrafast time scales to testing chiral molecular systems with subfemtosecond temporal and sub-Ångström spatial resolution.

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Alexander Hartung, Felipe Morales, Maksim Kunitski, Kevin Henrichs, Alina Laucke, Martin Richter, Till Jahnke, Anton Kalinin, Markus Schöffler, Lothar Ph. H. Schmidt, Misha Ivanov, Olga Smirnova, Reinhard Dörner. 2017-02-09. Electron spin polarization in strong-field ionization of Xenon atoms. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.109

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