Interpretation of chirality imprinted on photoelectron momentum spectra by three-dimensional light fields
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Synthetic three-dimensional (3D) light fields provide a new route to imprinting chirality on achiral matter through light--matter interaction. Although previous work has numerically demonstrated that chirality can be imprinted on the photoelectron momentum spectrum of atoms, a transparent analytical physical picture that links the structure of the driving field to the chirality of the spectrum is still an open question. Here, using frequency-domain theory based on nonperturbative quantum electrodynamics (QED), we demonstrate that this chirality originates from coherence between adjacent quantum transition channels. We further find that a symmetry transformation introduces into the coherence term a symmetry-breaking phase shift ($Φ_{\mathrm{SBPS}}$), which can be tuned by varying the laser-field parameters to preserve or break the corresponding symmetry in the spectrum. Once all such symmetries are broken, the momentum spectrum becomes chiral. In particular, for the noncollinear two-color 3D light field considered here, the spectrum is chiral for even $f=ω_2/ω_1$ and achiral for odd $f$. Our results provide a microscopic interpretation of chirality imprinting and establish a framework for predicting and controlling chiral electron wave packets with synthetic 3D light fields.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou Institute of Technology, Shantou University, State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, Jilin University, East China Normal University, University of Science and Technology of China, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7213411125