Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 28, 2025

Photoelectron Imaging of Anions Illustrated by 310 Nm Detachment of F−
Published on: July 27, 2018
Photon Momentum Transfer in Single-Photon Double Ionization of Helium
Si-Ge Chen1, Wei-Chao Jiang2, S Grundmann3
1State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Abstract:
We theoretically and experimentally investigate the photon momentum transfer in single-photon double ionization of helium at various large photon energies. We find that the forward shifts of the momenta along the light propagation of the two photoelectrons are roughly proportional to their fraction of the excess energy. The mean value of the forward momentum is about 8/5 of the electron energy divided by the speed of light. This holds for fast and slow electrons despite the fact that the energy sharing is highly asymmetric and the slow electron is known to be ejected by secondary processes of shake off and knockout rather than directly taking its energy from the photon. The biggest deviations from this rule are found for the region of equal energy sharing where the quasifree mechanism dominates double ionization.
Related Concept Videos
Chemical Ionization (CI) Mass Spectrometry
Photoelectric Effect
Thomson's e/m Experiment
A particle with charge q, speed v, and mass m enters an area from the top, where the magnetic and electric fields are perpendicular both to the particle's motion and to one another. The magnetic...
Deactivation Processes: Jablonski Diagram
The Bohr Model
The Uncertainty Principle

