Spin polarized electrons produced by strong field ionization

Abstract

We show that ionization of noble gas atoms by strong infrared circularly polarized laser field under standard exerimental conditions can yield electrons with up to 100% spin polarization in energy resolved measurements. Spin polarization arises due to the interplay of the electron-core entanglement and the sensitivity of ionization in circularly polarized fields to the sense of electron rotation in the initial state.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure