Resonant two-photon ionization of helium atoms studied by attosecond interferometry

Summary, in English

We study resonant two-photon ionization of helium atoms via the 1s3p, 1s4p and 1s5p¹P₁ states using the 15^th harmonic of a titanium-sapphire laser for the excitation and a weak fraction of the laser field for the ionization. The phase of the photoelectron wavepackets is measured by an attosecond interferometric technique, using the 17^th harmonic. We perform experiments with angular resolution using a velocity map imaging spectrometer and with high energy resolution using a magnetic bottle electron spectrometer. Our results are compared to calculations using the two-photon random phase approximation with exchange to account for electron correlation effects. We give an interpretation for the multiple π-rad phase jumps observed, both at and away from resonance, as well as their dependence on the emission angle.