Attoclock setup with negative ions: A possibility for experimental validation

The presumed connection in attoclock setups between the electron tunneling time and its asymptotic momentum has triggered vigorous debates. In neutral atomic systems investigated so far, the action of the long-range Coulomb potential on the electron momentum hinders extracting the effect of the tunneling process on the offset angle of the asymptotic electron momentum. We propose and investigate an attoclock experiment using ${\mathrm{F}}^{-}$ or ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}$ to circumvent this difficulty. Our calculations, performed with realistic laser parameters in the tunneling regime, could be checked directly against experiment and predict essentially a “zero” offset angle with no detectable effect of polarization.

Figure 1

PMD for a 1500-nm circularly polarized 2-cycle pulse with a ${\sin }^4$ envelope and a peak intensity $I_0={10}^{13}\mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{cm}}^2$. The arrow defines the positive $x$ axis.

Figure 2

PMD for a 1500-nm elliptically polarized ($\varepsilon =0.84$) 6-cycle pulse with a ${\sin }^2$ envelope and a peak intensity $I_0={10}^{13}\mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{cm}}^2$. The arrow defines the positive $x$ axis.