Attoclock and the quest for tunnelling time in strong-field physics

Abstract

Abstract The debate on tunnelling times have always been full of contradictions and the attoclock experiments that measure tunnelling delays in strong-field ionization are no exception. The current review presents the debate and discussions concerning the studies of tunnelling times based only on the attoclock technique. We review them with their implications and pitfalls identified due to lack of accurate strong field models that validate the observations in interpreting the measurements performed on noble gases. In order to provide a complete picture, the review begins with a background on some of the popular tunnelling time definitions, most of them conceived during the late 1980s debate, which are often cited in the attoclock literature. We then discuss various attoclock experiments on noble gas atoms and their interpretations in context of the tunneling time debate. The recently performed attoclock experiment and numerical modelling using atomic hydrogen are also presented as an attempt at resolving the controversy. We conclude with the current status of the debate.