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Science. 2010 Jun 25;328(5986):1658-62. doi: 10.1126/science.1189401.

Delay in photoemission.

Science (New York, N.Y.)

M Schultze, M Fiess, N Karpowicz, J Gagnon, M Korbman, M Hofstetter, S Neppl, A L Cavalieri, Y Komninos, Th Mercouris, C A Nicolaides, R Pazourek, S Nagele, J Feist, J Burgdörfer, A M Azzeer, R Ernstorfer, R Kienberger, U Kleineberg, E Goulielmakis, F Krausz, V S Yakovlev

Affiliations

  1. Department für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Am Coulombwall 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany. [email protected]

PMID: 20576884 DOI: 10.1126/science.1189401

Abstract

Photoemission from atoms is assumed to occur instantly in response to incident radiation and provides the basis for setting the zero of time in clocking atomic-scale electron motion. We used attosecond metrology to reveal a delay of 21 +/- 5 attoseconds in the emission of electrons liberated from the 2p orbitals of neon atoms with respect to those released from the 2s orbital by the same 100-electron volt light pulse. Small differences in the timing of photoemission from different quantum states provide a probe for modeling many-electron dynamics. Theoretical models refined with the help of attosecond timing metrology may provide insight into electron correlations and allow the setting of the zero of time in atomic-scale chronoscopy with a precision of a few attoseconds.

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