Classical Trajectory Perspective on Double Ionization Dynamics of Diatomic Molecules Irradiated by Ultrashort Intense Laser Pulses

Abstract

In the present paper, we develop a semiclassical quasi-static model accounting for molecular double ionization in an intense laser pulse. With this model, we achieve insight into the dynamics of two highly-correlated valence electrons under the combined influence of a two-center Coulomb potential and an intense laser field, and reveal the significant influence of molecular alignment on the ratio of double over single ion yield. Analysis on the classical trajectories unveils sub-cycle dynamics of the molecular double ionization. Many interesting features, such as the accumulation of emitted electrons in the first and third quadrants of parallel momentum plane, the regular pattern of correlated momentum with respect to the time delay between closest collision and ionization moment, are revealed and successfully explained by back analyzing the classical trajectories. Quantitative agreement with experimental data over a wide range of laser intensities from tunneling to over-the-barrier regime is presented.

8 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Classical collisional trajectories as the source of strong-field double ionization of helium in the knee regime
• Correlated electron emission in laser-induced nonsequence double ionization of Helium
• Complex Dynamics of Correlated Electrons in Molecular Double Ionization by an Ultrashort Intense Laser Pulse
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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Laser-induced nonsequential double ionization at and above the recollision-excitation-tunneling threshold
• Quantum Interference in Time-Delayed Nonsequential Double Ionization
• A toolkit for semiclassical computations for strongly-driven molecules: "frustrated" ionization of H${}_2$ driven by elliptical laser fields
• Excitation, two-center interference and the orbital geometry in laser-induced nonsequential double ionization of diatomic molecules
• Frustrated double and single ionization in a two-electron triatomic molecule H${}_3^{+}$
• Lattice QCD