Attosecond Diffraction Imaging of Electron Dynamics in Solids

Visualizing ultrafast electron dynamics in solids with spatiotemporal atomic resolution is pivotal for understanding properties and behavior of materials. While semiclassical time-resolved diffraction imaging (SC-TRDI) has been widely used, it fails to capture momenta of the moving electrons, leading to discrepancies with experiments. Here, we present the fully quantum mechanical TRDI (QM-TRDI) framework capable of describing the diffraction in solid-state systems. We apply our approach to graphene revealing critical insights of the laser-driven electron dynamics in this system. By solving the semiconductor Bloch equations and simulating diffraction signals, we demonstrate that QM-TRDI encodes both real-space and momentum-space dynamics, unlike SC-TRDI, which only probes instantaneous electron density. It establishes QM-TRDI as a transformative tool for imaging ultrafast electron dynamics in solids, with broad applications in studying correlated phases, topological materials, and light-driven phase transitions. Our approach bridges quantum mechanical simulations with experimental observables, offering practically useful framework for simulating attosecond diffraction in periodic systems.