Atomic-scale imaging of laser-driven electron dynamics in solids using subcycle-resolved x-ray-optical wave mixing

Abstract: We investigate laser-driven electron dynamics in solids on the atomic scale and in real space within Floquet formalism, and develop a method based on subcycle-resolved x-ray-optical wave mixing to reconstruct those dynamics. We analyze how time-reversal and inversion symmetries influence properties of optically-induced charge distributions and microscopic electron currents. Several examples for the $\mu$th-order microscopic optical response of band-gap crystals are shown and compared for cases when there is either a considerable or a vanishing $\mu$th-order macroscopic response. We then analyze the consequence of crystal symmetries on subcycle-resolved x-ray-optical wave mixing, a process in which an x-ray pulse of a duration shorter than the optical cycle of the driving pulse interacts with a laser-dressed crystal. Based on this analysis, we develop a method to reconstruct amplitudes and phases of Fourier components of optically-induced charge distributions from momentum and delay dependence of x-ray-optical wave-mixing spectra. Subcycle-resolved x-ray-optical wave mixing also reveals phases of temporal oscillations of microscopic optical response and some properties of microscopic laser-driven electron currents.