Entanglement in photoionisation reveals the effect of ionic coupling in attosecond time delays

Abstract

Abstract Attosecond photoelectron interferometry, based on the measurement of photoelectron spectra generated by a two-colour field, provides access to the photoionisation dynamics of quantum systems. In general, due to the entanglement between the wave function of the emitted photoelectron and that of the parent ion, the dynamics driven by the infra-red field in the photoion can affect the properties of the photoemitted electronic wave packet, when the measurement protocol corresponds to the projection of the total time-dependent wave function onto a specific final state of the bipartite system. This is particularly relevant for molecules, due to their rich internal electronic and vibrational energy structure. Here we show how the polarisation of the ion influences the photoionisation dynamics by introducing an additional time delay in the photoelectrons emitted from CO2 molecules. The delay stems from the entanglement between the photoion and the photoelectron created in the photoionisation process.