Strong Field Molecular Ionization in the Impulsive Limit: Freezing Vibrations with Short Pulses

Abstract

We study strong-field molecular ionization as a function of pulse duration. Experimental measurements of the photoelectron yield for a number of molecules reveal competition between different ionization continua (cationic states) which depends strongly on pulse duration. Surprisingly, in the limit of short pulse duration, we find that a single ionic continuum dominates the yield, whereas multiple continua are produced for longer pulses. Using calculations which take vibrational dynamics into account, we interpret our results in terms of nuclear motion and non-adiabatic dynamics during the ionization process.

References in corpus (2)

• Generation of Bright Isolated Attosecond Soft X-Ray Pulses Driven by Multi-Cycle Mid-Infrared Lasers
• Coherent strong-field control of multiple states by a single chirped femtosecond laser pulse

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