Theory of attosecond absorption spectroscopy in krypton

A theory for time-domain attosecond pump-attosecond probe photoabsorption spectroscopy is formulated and related to the atomic response. The theory is illustrated through a study of attosecond absorption spectroscopy in krypton. The atomic parameters entering the formulation such as energies and Auger widths, as well as wave functions and dipole coupling matrix elements, are determined by accurate many-body structure calculations. We create a hole in a valence shell by an attosecond pump, couple an inner-shell electron to the hole by an attosecond probe, and then monitor the formation of the hole in this manner. In a second example, a hole is created in an inner shell by the first pulse, and the second probe pulse couples an even more tightly bound state to that hole. The hole decays in this example by Auger electron emission, and the absorption spectroscopy follows the decay of the hole and the associated coherences in real time.