Atomic photoionization by multiple temporal pairs of slits

The 2015 prediction of Archimedean spirals from photoionization of atoms by time-delayed circularly-polarized light [1], confirmed experimentally [2,3] for multiphoton ionization [4], has opened up a new interdisciplinary research field on searching for potential applications of this matter-wave phenomenon by exploring a variety of targets, processes and regimes. Here, we study interactions between multiple temporal pairs of slits in coherent control of photoionization of S-state atoms using a pulse train of N+1 pairs evenly delayed in time by $\tau$ in which the two pulses in a pair with a delay $\tau_0$ are counter-rotating circularly polarized. For interacting two double-slit experiments, while Ramsey interference between two identical Archimedean spirals yields pairs of principal spirals, interference of two spirals with opposite handedness does not lead to spirals, but instead to crocodile-eye-like patterns with nictares~[5]. For more than two interacting experiments, the resulting patterns turn out just to be those two reference patterns modulated by different kinds of N-dependent time-energy Fraunhofer functions exhibiting diffraction-grating-like patterns~[5]. These results indicate applications in electron grating spectrometers.