No Arabic abstract
Coherent control of interfering one- and two-photon processes has for decades been the subject of research to achieve the redirection of photocurrent. The present study develops two-pathway coherent control of ground state helium atom above-threshold photoionization for energies up to the $N=2$ threshold, based on a multichannel quantum defect and R-matrix calculation. Three parameters are controlled in our treatment: the optical interference phase $DeltaPhi$, the reduced electric field strength $chi=mathcal{E}_{omega}^2/{mathcal{E}_{2omega}}$, and the final state energy $epsilon$. A small energy change near a resonance is shown to flip the emission direction of photoelectrons with high efficiency, through an example where $90%$ of photoelectrons whose energy is near the $2p^2 ^1S^e$ resonance flip their emission direction. However, the large fraction of photoelectrons ionized at the intermediate state energy, which are not influenced by the optical control, make this control scheme challenging to realize experimentally.
We theoretically study the quantum interference induced photon blockade phenomenon in atom cavity QED system, where the destructive interference between two different transition pathways prohibits the two-photon excitation. Here, we first explore the single atom cavity QED system via an atom or cavity drive. We show that the cavity-driven case will lead to the quantum interference induced photon blockade under a specific condition, but the atom driven case cant result in such interference induced photon blockade. Then, we investigate the two atoms case, and find that an additional transition pathway appears in the atom-driven case. We show that this additional transition pathway results in the quantum interference induced photon blockade only if the atomic resonant frequency is different from the cavity mode frequency. Moreover, in this case, the condition for realizing the interference induced photon blockade is independent of the systems intrinsic parameters, which can be used to generate antibunched photon source both in weak and strong coupling regimes.
We present an analytical model that characterizes two-photon transitions in the presence of autoionising states. We applied this model to interpret resonant RABITT spectra, and show that, as a harmonic traverses a resonance, the phase of the sideband beating significantly varies with photon energy. This phase variation is generally very different from the $pi$ jump observed in previous works, in which the direct path contribution was negligible. We illustrate the possible phase profiles arising in resonant two-photon transitions with an intuitive geometrical representation.
Measurements of the phase of two-photon matrix elements are presented for near-resonant two-color ionization of helium. A tunable, narrow-bandwidth, near-infrared (NIR) laser source is used for extreme ultra-violet (XUV) high-harmonic generation (HHG). The 15th harmonic of the laser is used within (1+1) XUV+NIR two-photon ionization, and tuned in and out of resonance with members of the 1s$n$p $^1$P$_1$ ($n=3,4,5$) Rydberg series. Rapid changes in the phase of the two-photon matrix elements around resonances and at the mid-way point between two resonances are observed, encoding the relative importance of resonant and near-resonant two-color ionization. Similar effects are observed for (1+2) XUV+NIR three-photon ionization. The experimental results are compared to a perturbative model and numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation (TDSE) in the single active electron (SAE) approximation.
Phase-shift differences and amplitude ratios of the outgoing $s$ and $d$ continuum wave packets generated by two-photon ionization of helium atoms are determined from the photoelectron angular distributions obtained using velocity map imaging. Helium atoms are ionized with ultrashort extreme-ultraviolet free-electron laser pulses with a photon energy of 20.3, 21.3, 23.0, and 24.3 eV, produced by the SPring-8 Compact SASE Source test accelerator. The measured values of the phase-shift differences are distinct from scattering phase-shift differences when the photon energy is tuned to an excited level or Rydberg manifold. The difference stems from the competition between resonant and non-resonant paths in two-photon ionization by ultrashort pulses. Since the competition can be controlled in principle by the pulse shape, the present results illustrate a new way to tailor the continuum wave packet.
We study resonant two-color two-photon ionization of Helium via the 1s3p 1P1 state. The first color is the 15th harmonic of a tunable titanium sapphire laser, while the second color is the fundamental laser radiation. Our method uses phase-locked high-order harmonics to determine the {it phase} of the two-photon process by interferometry. The measurement of the two-photon ionization phase variation as a function of detuning from the resonance and intensity of the dressing field allows us to determine the intensity dependence of the transition energy.