Photon momentum transfer and partitioning: from one to many
Abstract The transfer of photon momentum is indispensable in initiating and directing light-matter interactions, which underpins a plethora of fundamental physical processes from laser cooling to laser particle acceleration. The transferred photon momentum is distributed between the photoelectron an...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60983-z |
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| author | Xiaodan Mao Hongcheng Ni Kang Lin Pei-Lun He Hao Liang Sebastian Eckart Feng He Kiyoshi Ueda Reinhard Dörner Jian Wu |
| author_facet | Xiaodan Mao Hongcheng Ni Kang Lin Pei-Lun He Hao Liang Sebastian Eckart Feng He Kiyoshi Ueda Reinhard Dörner Jian Wu |
| author_sort | Xiaodan Mao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The transfer of photon momentum is indispensable in initiating and directing light-matter interactions, which underpins a plethora of fundamental physical processes from laser cooling to laser particle acceleration. The transferred photon momentum is distributed between the photoelectron and the residual ion upon ionization. Our study presents a general and consistent framework for photon momentum transfer covering an arbitrary number of absorbed photons. Our results bridge the gap between the previously considered limiting cases of single-photon and multi-photon strong-field ionization and suggest revising the current consensus for the multi-photon limit by demonstrating that with each additional photon absorbed above the ionization threshold, the photoelectron acquires on average twice the momentum of the absorbed photon. Our work paves the pathway towards a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental processes of photon momentum transfer in light-matter interactions, with implications for both theoretical physics and practical applications that harness the transfer of photon momentum. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7f2dd5971d514da88a22aa941ea34596 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-7f2dd5971d514da88a22aa941ea345962025-08-20T03:03:29ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-07-011611810.1038/s41467-025-60983-zPhoton momentum transfer and partitioning: from one to manyXiaodan Mao0Hongcheng Ni1Kang Lin2Pei-Lun He3Hao Liang4Sebastian Eckart5Feng He6Kiyoshi Ueda7Reinhard Dörner8Jian Wu9State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal UniversityState Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal UniversitySchool of Physics, Zhejiang UniversityMax-Planck-Institut für KernphysikMax-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer SystemeInstitut für Kernphysik, Goethe-Universität FrankfurtKey Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (Ministry of Education), School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityState Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal UniversityInstitut für Kernphysik, Goethe-Universität FrankfurtState Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal UniversityAbstract The transfer of photon momentum is indispensable in initiating and directing light-matter interactions, which underpins a plethora of fundamental physical processes from laser cooling to laser particle acceleration. The transferred photon momentum is distributed between the photoelectron and the residual ion upon ionization. Our study presents a general and consistent framework for photon momentum transfer covering an arbitrary number of absorbed photons. Our results bridge the gap between the previously considered limiting cases of single-photon and multi-photon strong-field ionization and suggest revising the current consensus for the multi-photon limit by demonstrating that with each additional photon absorbed above the ionization threshold, the photoelectron acquires on average twice the momentum of the absorbed photon. Our work paves the pathway towards a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental processes of photon momentum transfer in light-matter interactions, with implications for both theoretical physics and practical applications that harness the transfer of photon momentum.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60983-z |
| spellingShingle | Xiaodan Mao Hongcheng Ni Kang Lin Pei-Lun He Hao Liang Sebastian Eckart Feng He Kiyoshi Ueda Reinhard Dörner Jian Wu Photon momentum transfer and partitioning: from one to many Nature Communications |
| title | Photon momentum transfer and partitioning: from one to many |
| title_full | Photon momentum transfer and partitioning: from one to many |
| title_fullStr | Photon momentum transfer and partitioning: from one to many |
| title_full_unstemmed | Photon momentum transfer and partitioning: from one to many |
| title_short | Photon momentum transfer and partitioning: from one to many |
| title_sort | photon momentum transfer and partitioning from one to many |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60983-z |
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