Molecular Frame Photoelectron Angular Distributions in Polyatomic Molecules from Lab Frame Coherent Rotational Wavepacket Evolution

Molecular Frame Photoelectron Angular Distributions in Polyatomic Molecules from Lab Frame Coherent Rotational Wavepacket Evolution

Margaret Gregory, Paul Hockett, Albert Stolow, Varun Makhija

arXiv:2012.04561, Dec. 2020

The application of a matrix-based reconstruction protocol for obtaining Molecular Frame (MF) photoelectron angular distributions (MFPADs) from laboratory frame (LF) measurements (LFPADs) is explored. Similarly to other recent works on the topic of MF reconstruction, this protocol makes use of time-resolved LF measurements, in which a rotational wavepacket is prepared and probed via photoionization, followed by a numerical reconstruction routine; however, in contrast to other methodologies, the protocol developed herein does not require determination of photoionization matrix elements, and consequently takes a relatively simple numerical form (matrix transform making use of the Moore-Penrose inverse). Significantly, the simplicity allows application of the method to the successful reconstruction of MFPADs for polyatomic molecules. The scheme is demonstrated numerically for two realistic cases, N2 and C2H4. The new technique is expected to be generally applicable for a range of MF reconstruction problems involving photoionization of polyatomic molecules.


 

Photoelectron angular distributions from resonant two-photon ionisation of adiabatically aligned naphthalene and aniline molecules

Photoelectron angular distributions from resonant two-photon ionisation of adiabatically aligned naphthalene and aniline molecules

Molecular Physics, Article: e1836411 | Received 03 Aug 2020, Accepted 06 Oct 2020, Published online: 22 Oct 2020,
https://doi.org/10.1080/00268976.2020.1836411

Photoelectron images have been measured following the ionisation of aligned distributions of gas phase naphthalene and aniline molecules. Alignment in the adiabatic regime was achieved by interaction with a 100 ps infrared laser pulse, with ionisation achieved in a two-photon resonant scheme using a low intensity UV pulse of ∼6 ps duration. The resulting images are found to exhibit anisotropy that increases when the alignment pulse is present, with the aniline PADs peaking along the polarisation vector of the ionising light and the naphthalene PADs developing a characteristic four-lobed structure. Photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) that result from the ionisation of unaligned and fully aligned distributions of molecules are calculated using the ePolyScat ab initio suite and converted into two-dimensional photoelectron images. In the case of naphthalene excellent agreement is observed between experiment and the simulation for the fully aligned distribution, showing that the alignment step allows us to probe the molecular frame, but in the case of aniline it is clear that additional processes occur following the one-photon resonant step.

THz-bandwidth all-optical switching of heralded single photons

THz-bandwidth all-optical switching of heralded single photons

Update March 2019 – now in Optics Letters, DOI: 10.1364/OL.44.001427

June 2018 – New on arXiv.

Optically induced ultrafast switching of single photons is demonstrated by rotating the photon polarization via the Kerr effect in a commercially available single mode fiber. A switching efficiency of 97\% is achieved with a 1.7\,ps switching time, and signal-to-noise ratio of 800. Preservation of the quantum state is confirmed by measuring no significant increase in the second-order autocorrelation function g(2)(0). These values are attained with only nanojoule level pump energies that are produced by a laser oscillator with 80\,MHz repetition rate. The results highlight a simple switching device capable of both high-bandwidth operations and preservation of single-photon properties for applications in photonic quantum processing and ultrafast time-gating or switching.

Quantum Beat Photoelectron Imaging Spectroscopy of Xe in the VUV

Quantum Beat Photoelectron Imaging Spectroscopy of Xe in the VUV

UPDATE June 2018 – Now published in Phys. Rev. A 97, 063417, 2018, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.97.063417

… and in Kaleidoscope.

March 2018: New on arXiv

Time-resolved pump-probe measurements of Xe, pumped at 133~nm and probed at 266~nm, are presented. The pump pulse prepared a long-lived hyperfine wavepacket, in the Xe 5p5(2P1/2)6s 2[1/2]1 manifold (E=77185 cm1=9.57 eV). The wavepacket was monitored via single-photon ionization, and photoelectron images measured. The images provide angle- and time-resolved data which, when obtained over a large time-window (900~ps), constitute a precision quantum beat spectroscopy measurement of the hyperfine state splittings. Additionally, analysis of the full photoelectron image stack provides a quantum beat imaging modality, in which the Fourier components of the photoelectron images correlated with specific beat components can be obtained. This may also permit the extraction of isotope-resolved photoelectron images in the frequency domain, in cases where nuclear spins (hence beat components) can be uniquely assigned to specific isotopes (as herein), and also provides phase information. The information content of both raw, and inverted, image stacks is investigated, suggesting the utility of the Fourier analysis methodology in cases where images cannot be inverted.

Also available on Authorea.

Full data, code & analysis notes on OSF.

Quantum Metrology with Photoelectrons (book)

Quantum Metrology with Photoelectrons (book)

Update April 2018 – the books are now available via IOP, see details at end of post.

Book for IOP Concise Physics series, due early 2018

Dr. Paul Hockett

National Research Council of Canada

Online resources

OSF project (ID: q2v3g) with interactive content and additional resources, DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/Q2V3G

femtolab.ca website, posts tagged “metrology-book”

femtolab.ca website, posts tagged “video”

Abstract

Photoionization is an interferometric process, in which multiple paths can contribute to the final continuum photoelectron wavefunction. At the simplest level, interferences between different final angular momentum states are manifest in the energy and angle resolved photoelectron spectra: metrology schemes making use of these interferograms are thus phase-sensitive, and provide a powerful route to detailed understanding of photoionization. In these cases, the continuum wavefunction (and underlying scattering dynamics) can be characterised. At a more complex level, such measurements can also provide a powerful probe for other processes of interest, leading to a more general class of quantum metrology built on phase-sensitive photoelectron imaging.  Since the turn of the century, the increasing availability of photoelectron imaging experiments, along with the increasing sophistication of experimental techniques, and the availability of computational resources for analysis and numerics, has allowed for significant developments in such photoelectron metrology.

Volume I covers the core physics of photoionization, including a range of computational examples. The material is presented as both reference and tutorial, and should appeal to readers of all levels.  Volume II explores applications, and the development of quantum metrology schemes based on photoelectron measurements. The material is more technical, and will appeal more to the specialist reader.

Full text

Quantum Metrology with Photoelectrons

Volume 1
ISBN 978-1-6817-4684-5
http://iopscience.iop.org/book/978-1-6817-4684-5
Volume 2
ISBN 978-1-6817-4688-3
http://iopscience.iop.org/book/978-1-6817-4688-3

 

Real-time spectral characterization of a photon pair source using a chirped supercontinuum seed

Real-time spectral characterization of a photon pair source using a chirped supercontinuum seed

New article in Optics Letters.

Jennifer Erskine, Duncan England, Connor Kupchak, and Benjamin Sussman

Optics Letters Vol. 43, Issue 4, pp. 907-910 (2018)

https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.43.000907

Photon pair sources have wide ranging applications in a variety of quantum photonic experiments and protocols. Many of these protocols require well controlled spectral correlations between the two output photons. However, due to low cross-sections, measuring the joint spectral properties of photon pair sources has historically been a challenging and time-consuming task. Here, we present an approach for the real-time measurement of the joint spectral properties of a fiber-based four wave mixing source. We seed the four wave mixing process using a broadband chirped pulse, studying the stimulated process to extract information regarding the spontaneous process. In addition, we compare stimulated emission measurements with the spontaneous process to confirm the technique’s validity. Joint spectral measurements have taken many hours historically and several minutes with recent techniques. Here, measurements have been demonstrated in 5–30 s depending on resolution, offering substantial improvement. Additional benefits of this approach include flexible resolution, large measurement bandwidth, and reduced experimental overhead.

 

Time-bin-to-polarization conversion of ultrafast photonic qubits

Time-bin-to-polarization conversion of ultrafast photonic qubits

Connor Kupchak, Philip J. Bustard, Khabat Heshami, Jennifer Erskine, Michael Spanner, Duncan G. England, and Benjamin J. Sussman
Phys. Rev. A 96, 053812 – Published 6 November 2017

The encoding of quantum information in photonic time-bin qubits is apt for long-distance quantum communication schemes. In practice, due to technical constraints such as detector response time, or the speed with which copolarized time-bins can be switched, other encodings, e.g., polarization, are often preferred for operations like state detection. Here, we present the conversion of qubits between polarization and time-bin encodings by using a method that is based on an ultrafast optical Kerr shutter and attain efficiencies of 97% and an average fidelity of 0.827±0.003 with shutter speeds near 1 ps. Our demonstration delineates an essential requirement for the development of hybrid and high-rate optical quantum networks.

Bootstrapping to the Molecular Frame with Time-domain Photoionization Interferometry

Bootstrapping to the Molecular Frame with Time-domain Photoionization Interferometry

Update Jan 2018 – a presentation covering this work was given at the PQE conference, video and slides are available online.

Update August 2017 – this article is now published in PRL, under the alternative title Molecular Frame Reconstruction Using Time-Domain Photoionization Interferometry.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 083401 (2017), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.083401

(Feb 2017) New manuscript on the arxiv:

Bootstrapping to the Molecular Frame with Time-domain Photoionization Interferometry

 

Photoionization of molecular species is, essentially, a multi-path interferometer with both experimentally controllable and intrinsic molecular characteristics. In this work, XUV photoionization of impulsively aligned molecular targets (N2) is used to provide a time-domain route to “complete” photoionization experiments, in which the rotational wavepacket controls the geometric part of the photoionization interferometer. The data obtained is sufficient to determine the magnitudes and phases of the ionization matrix elements for all observed channels, and to reconstruct molecular frame interferograms from lab frame measurements. In principle this methodology provides a time-domain route to complete photoionization experiments, and the molecular frame, which is generally applicable to any molecule (no prerequisites), for all energies and ionization channels.

arxiv 1701.08432 (2017)

Supplementary material (theory, data and code) available at DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.4480349.

Photoionization Interferometry & Metrology

Photoionization Interferometry & Metrology

Photoionization is a complex quantum mechanical process, with a range of interfering channels playing a role in even the simplest case. For problems in quantum metrology and sensing, a detailed understanding of the process is desirable for accurate measurements; quantum control is also a possible outcome of such understanding. New research in this area will build on recent cutting-edge work at NRC (see below), which probed the fundamental quantum physics of photoionization in atoms and molecules, and metrology work which demonstrated the retrieval of electron wavefunctions via interferometric time-domain measurements.

Four areas of photoionization interferometry are the target of current research:

  1. Metrology and control with rotational wavepackets.
  2. Metrology and control with shaped laser pulses.
  3. Quantum dynamics probed via photoionization interferometry.
  4. Fundamental properties of photoion and photoelectron coherence.

Depending on interests and experience, project work will be in one (or more) of these areas.

An introduction to this topic, and recent work, can be found in Paul’s DAMOP 2017 talk Phase-sensitive Photoelectron Metrology (below), and via our blog.

Phase-sensitive Photoelectron Metrology – Dr. P. Hockett, presentation at DAMOP 2017 from femtolab.ca on Vimeo.