Shushu Ruan | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Observation of Strong Electron Correlation in Planetary Atomic Structure

Unravelling two-electron correlation is a long-standing challenge at the heart of few-body quantum physics, underlying correlated phenomena across atomic, molecular and condensed-matter science. In prototypical three-body Coulomb systems, such strong correlation in doubly excited states (DESs) of planetary atomic systems leaves distinct signatures in nonsequential above-threshold double ionization (NS-ATDI) driven by coherent laser fields, yet such targeted study has long remained elusive. Here we present kinematically complete measurements of multi-photon double ionization in cold strontium atoms. Our results reveal a dominant NS-ATDI channel exhibiting well-defined band structures that encode pronounced energy and angular correlations between the two emitted electrons. Autoionization spectra confirm the presence of DESs as transition states that effectively promote the NS-ATDI process. These observations provide direct evidence that both electrons are synchronously excited and ionized via resonant high-lying DES transitions, meaning the structure-linked two-electron correlation of DES is preserved and propagated in the laser-driven time-dependent three-body system. Our work transcends the traditional paradigm of multi-photon double ionization, and fundamentally reshapes the core understanding of intrinsic electron correlation governing many-body systems in nature.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2023

Magneto-optical trap reaction microscope for photoionization of cold strontium atoms

We developed a magneto-optical trap reaction microscope (MOTREMI) for strontium atoms by combining the multi-particle coincident detection with laser cooling technique. Present compact injection system can provide cold Sr atoms in three modes of 2D MOT, molasses and 3D MOT, delivering targets with adjustable densities and ratios of the ground state $5s^2$ ($^1S_{0}$) and the excited states $5s5p$ ($^{1}P_{1}$ and $^{3}P_{J}$ etc). The target profiles for the temperature, the density and the size of 3D MOT as well as cold atomic flux in 2D MOT model were characterized in details. With present state-of-the-art setup, we demonstrated the single photoionization of Sr atoms with molasses by absorption of few 800-nm photons, where Sr$^+$ and $e$ were detected in coincidence and most of ionization channels were identified taking into account photoelectron energy, laser-intensity dependence, and target dependence. The best momentum resolution of coincident Sr$^+$ and $e$ along time-of-flight are achieved up to 0.12 a.u. and 0.02 a.u., respectively. Present photoelectron momentum distributions ionized from the ground state and a few excited states illuminate unprecedentedly rich landscapes manifesting prominent features for multi-photon absorption. The full vector momenta of electrons and recoil ion in coincidence paves the way to further studying two-electron correlation dynamics and multi-electron effects in the multiple ionization of alkaline-earth atoms in the ultraviolet region.

physics.atom-ph↗