Twisted electrons as an imaging tool for probing chiral molecules in strong field ionization

Abstract

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) carried by vortex beams has seen an explosion of interest across fields and this is particularly true in attosecond physics. Given that twisted electrons have been shown to be sensitive to the chirality of molecules, exploring this sensitivity on the attosecond scale is a particularly exciting prospect. The OAM of photoelectrons has been theoretically studied discussing ways to measure and understand the ionization via an analytic formalism. This opens up the possibility of using the photoelectron OAM as an imaging tool. However, in most of the earlier studies the effects of the initial state on the photoelectron OAM have been neglected. In this project, using an analytic formalism to produce chiral hydrogen states, we have investigated how the photoelectron OAM in strong field ionization can be used to image molecular chirality.