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Originally published in Science Express on 11 July 2002
Science 16 August 2002:
Vol. 297. no. 5584, pp. 1144 - 1148
DOI: 10.1126/science.1073866
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Research Articles

Steering Attosecond Electron Wave Packets with Light

R. Kienberger,1 M. Hentschel,1 M. Uiberacker,1 Ch. Spielmann,12 M. Kitzler,1 A. Scrinzi,1 M. Wieland,3 Th. Westerwalbesloh,4 U. Kleineberg,4 U. Heinzmann,4 M. Drescher,4 F. Krausz1*

Photoelectrons excited by extreme ultraviolet or x-ray photons in the presence of a strong laser field generally suffer a spread of their energies due to the absorption and emission of laser photons. We demonstrate that if the emitted electron wave packet is temporally confined to a small fraction of the oscillation period of the interacting light wave, its energy spectrum can be up- or downshifted by many times the laser photon energy without substantial broadening. The light wave can accelerate or decelerate the electron's drift velocity, i.e., steer the electron wave packet like a classical particle. This capability strictly relies on a sub-femtosecond duration of the ionizing x-ray pulse and on its timing to the phase of the light wave with a similar accuracy, offering a simple and potentially single-shot diagnostic tool for attosecond pump-probe spectroscopy.

1 Institut für Photonik, Technische Universität Wien, Gusshausstr. 27, A-1040 Wien, Austria.
2 Physikalisches Institut EP1, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany.
3 Fachhochschule Koblenz, RheinAhrCampus Remagen, Südallee 2, D-53424 Remagen, Germany.
4 Fakultät für Physik, Universität Bielefeld, D-33615 Bielefeld, Germany.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ferenc.krausz{at}tuwien.ac.at

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Direct Measurement of Light Waves.
E. Goulielmakis, M. Uiberacker, R. Kienberger, A. Baltuska, V. Yakovlev, A. Scrinzi, Th. Westerwalbesloh, U. Kleineberg, U. Heinzmann, M. Drescher, et al. (2004)
Science 305, 1267-1269
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