Attosecond Transient Absorption Spectroscopy of doubly-excited states in helium

Abstract

Strong-field manipulation of autoionizing states is a crucial aspect of electronic quantum control. Recent measurements of the attosecond transient absorption spectrum of helium dressed by a few-cycle visible pulse [Ott et al., arXiv:1205.0519[physics.atom-ph] ] provide evidence of novel ultrafast resonant phenomena, namely, two-photon Rabi oscillations between doubly-excited states and the inversion of Fano profiles. Here we present the results of accurate \emph{ab-initio} calculations that agree with these observations and in addition predict that (i) inversion of Fano profiles is actually periodic in the coupling laser intensity and (ii) the supposedly dark $2p^2$ {$^1$S} state also appears in the spectrum. Closer inspection of the experimental data confirms the latter prediction.

5 pages, 4 figures