Single photon double ionization of the helium dimer

Abstract

We show that a single photon can ionize the two helium atoms of the helium dimer in a distance up to 10 °A. The energy sharing among the electrons, the angular distributions of the ions and electrons as well as comparison with electron impact data for helium atoms suggest a knock-off type double ionization process. The Coulomb explosion imaging of He_2 provides a direct view of the nuclear wave function of this by far most extended and most diffuse of all naturally existing molecules.

10 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Separation and identification of dominant mechanisms in double photoionization

Cited by in corpus (8)

• EUV ionization of pure He nanodroplets: Mass-correlated photoelectron imaging, Penning ionization and electron energy-loss spectra
• Interatomic Coulombic decay in helium nanodroplets
• Interatomic-Coulombic-decay-induced recapture of photoelectrons in helium dimers
• Resonant single-photon double ionization driven by combined intra- and interatomic electron correlations
• Probing the helium dimer by relativistic highly-charged projectiles
• Photo fragmentation of large dimers into singly charged ions via the knockout mechanism
• Frequency Resolved Optical Gating for Time-Resolving Intra-Atomic Knock-Out in Double Ionization with Attosecond Pulses
• Fragmentation of the ${}^4$He${}_2$ dimer by relativistic highly charged projectiles in collisions with small kinetic energy release