Forward-backward asymmetry of photoemission in C$_{60}$ excited by few-cycle laser pulses

Abstract

We theoretically analyze angle-resolved photo-electron spectra (ARPES) generated by the interaction of C$_{60}$ with intense, short laser pulses. In particular, we focus on the impact of the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) onto the angular distribution. The electronic dynamics is described by time-dependent density functional theory, and the ionic background of $\csixty$ is approximated by a particularly designed jellium model. Our results show a clear dependence of the angular distributions onto the CEP for very short pulses covering only very few laser cycles, which disappears for longer pulses. For the specific laser parameters used in a recent experiments, a very good agreement is obtained. Furthermore, the asymmetry is found to depend on the energy of the emitted photoelectrons. The strong influence of the angular asymmetry of electron emission onto the CEP and pulse duration suggests to use this sensitivity as a means to analyze the structure of few-cycle laser pulses.