Cited by 303Laser-Matter Interactions and ApplicationsAtomic and Molecular PhysicsAdvanced Chemical Physics Studies

Reconstruction and control of a time-dependent two-electron wave packet

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Ott, Christian, Kaldun, Andreas, Argenti, Luca, Raith, Philipp, Meyer, Kristina, Laux, Martin, Zhang, Yizhu, Blättermann, Alexander +6 more·2014·Nature

Abstract

The concerted motion of two or more bound electrons governs atomic and molecular non-equilibrium processes including chemical reactions, and hence there is much interest in developing a detailed understanding of such electron dynamics in the quantum regime. However, there is no exact solution for the quantum three-body problem, and as a result even the minimal system of two active electrons and a nucleus is analytically intractable. This makes experimental measurements of the dynamics of two bound and correlated electrons, as found in the helium atom, an attractive prospect. However, although the motion of single active electrons and holes has been observed with attosecond time resolution, comparable experiments on two-electron motion have so far remained out of reach. Here we show that a correlated two-electron wave packet can be reconstructed from a 1.2-femtosecond quantum beat among low-lying doubly excited states in helium. The beat appears in attosecond transient-absorption spectra measured with unprecedentedly high spectral resolution and in the presence of an intensity-tunable visible laser field. We tune the coupling between the two low-lying quantum states by adjusting the visible laser intensity, and use the Fano resonance as a phase-sensitive quantum interferometer to achieve coherent control of the two correlated electrons. Given the excellent agreement with large-scale quantum-mechanical calculations for the helium atom, we anticipate that multidimensional spectroscopy experiments of the type we report here will provide benchmark data for testing fundamental few-body quantum dynamics theory in more complex systems. They might also provide a route to the site-specific measurement and control of metastable electronic transition states that are at the heart of fundamental chemical reactions.

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Crossref · 10.1038/nature14026

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  • More recent experiments have addressed correlated two-electron dynamics, attosecond to few-femtosecond charge migration in molecules, and electric field-induced charge separation in solids.

    “More recent experiments have addressed correlated two-electron dynamics [169], attosecond to few-femtosecond charge migration in molecules [170, 171] and electric field-induced charge separation in solids [172].”

    From Roadmap of ultrafast x-ray atomic and molecular physics (2018) · cites this paper as [169]

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Authors
Ott, C., Kaldun, A., Argenti, L., Raith, P., Meyer, K., Laux, M., Zhang, Y., Blättermann, A., Hagstotz, S., Ding, T., Heck, R., Madroñero, J., Martín, F., & Pfeifer, T.
Affiliations
  • Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE)
  • Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (ES)
  • Technical University of Munich (DE)
  • Heidelberg University (DE)
Corresponding author
Pfeifer, Thomas
Venue
Nature
Published
2014-12
Volume
516
Issue
7531
Pages
374-378
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2057758931
Cited by
303
References
38
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 38 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 45 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 1
FWCI
17.24
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • Tesis Doctorals en Xarxa (Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya) (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Hispana (submittedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
  • Biblos-e Archivo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Atomic and Molecular Physics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Advanced Chemical Physics Studies
Keywords
helium atom, doubly excited states, quantum beats, attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy, Fano resonance, quantum interference, coherent control, electron correlation, multidimensional spectroscopy, attosecond spectroscopy, few-cycle laser fields

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