Control of the spin polarization of photoelectrons/photoions using short laser pulses

We present a generic pump-probe scheme to control spin polarization of photoelectrons/photoions by short laser pulses. By coherently exciting fine structure manifolds of a multi-valence-electron system by the pump laser, a superposition of fine structure states is created. Since each fine structure state can be further decomposed into a superposition of various spin states of valence electrons, each spin component evolves differently in time. This means that varying the time delay between the pump and probe lasers leads to the control of spin states. Specific theoretical results are presented for two-valence-electron atoms, in particular for Mg, which demonstrate that not only the degree of spin polarization but also its sign can be manipulated through time delay. Since the underline physics is rather general and transparent, the presented idea may be potentially applied to nanostructures such as quantum wells and quantum dots