Circular Dichroism in Laser-Assisted Short-Pulse Photoionization

A remarkable effect of circular dichroism, i.e., a difference in photoelectron spectra produced by right and left circularly polarized light in two-color multiphoton ionization of atoms, is predicted for the case when the atom is ionized by an extreme ultraviolet or x-ray femtosecond pulse in the field of a strong infrared laser pulse, both pulses being circularly polarized. We show that the sidebands formed in the spectra exhibit different circular dichroism often of different signs both in angle-resolved and angle-integrated experimental conditions. The effect can be used for detecting and measuring circular polarization of x rays in a spectral range where other methods are not effective.