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The wave nature of light and particles is of interest to the fundamental quantum mechanics. Here the authors show the double-slit interference effect in the strong-field ionization of neon dimers by employing COLTRIMS method to record the momentum distribution of the photoelectrons in the molecular frame

An ‘attoclock’ that measures the relative release time of electrons during double ionization is now presented. The technique enables investigation of the subtle differences between sequential and non-sequential ionization when elliptically polarized light is used to excite two electrons from argon atoms.

A technique that uses the rotating electric-field vector of a circularly polarized laser pulse as a ‘clock’ provides a fresh approach to measuring electron dynamics with attosecond time resolution.

Unravelling the momentum transfer and partition between photoelectrons and ions is a fundamental problem of light-atom interaction. Here, the authors investigate above threshold ionisation at arbitrary photon numbers, filling a gap between the single-and multi-photon limits and showing that each photon transfers twice its momentum to the photoelectron in the latter case.

The authors demonstrate, using coincident Coulomb explosion imaging, that the rotational dynamics of single nitrogen molecules can be used as a probe to sense the interactions with surrounding Ar atoms in gas-phase clusters.

Ultrashort laser fields applied to a helium dimer are able to tune the interactions between two helium atoms. A video of the dimer’s response to this localized disturbance shows the effect of dissociation and alignment of the wave packets.

Electron spin polarization is experimentally detected and investigated via strong-field ionization of xenon atoms.

Determining the time evolution of reactions at the quantum mechanical level improves our understanding of molecular dynamics. Here, authors separate the breakup of water, one bond at a time, from other processes leading to the same final products and experimentally identify, separate, and follow step by step two breakup paths of the transient OD⁺ fragment.

H₃⁺ and D₃⁺ serve as initiators of many chemical reactions in interstellar clouds. Now the ultrafast formation dynamics of D₃⁺ from a light-driven bimolecular reaction starting from D₂–D₂ dimers have been measured. It has also been shown that the emission direction of D₃⁺ can be controlled by driving the reaction with a more complex two-colour laser pulse.

Measuring photoionization time delays is an interesting and challenging topic. Here the authors demonstrate a method to measure the photoionization time delays using inner-shell ionization of CO molecule.

Visualizing the structural dynamics of isolated molecules would help to understand chemical reactions, but this is difficult for complex structures. Intense femtosecond X-ray pulses allow the full imaging of exploding photoionized molecules, in this case, with eleven atoms.

Similar to electrons passed through a double-slit apparatus, photoelectrons emitted coherently from both atoms of a diatomic molecule can exhibit interference patterns. But when coherence between the two atoms is lost, effects are shown to come into play that are unique to the ‘molecular double-slit’ experiment.

Compton scattering experiments off helium atoms for photon energies close to the ionization threshold reveal that electrons are not only emitted in the direction of the momentum transfer but also backwards.

When an electron with specific orbit — either clockwise or anticlockwise — in a rare gas atom is selectively ionized, the remaining ion will possess a stationary ring current, which can be probed in a time-delayed second ionization step.