Title: Multielectron Effects in Strong-Field Dissociative Ionization of Molecules

X. Gong[1], M. Kunitski[2], K.J. Betsch[3,4], Q. Song[1], L. Ph. H. Schmidt[2], T. Jahnke[2], Nora G. Kling[4,5], O. Herrwerth[4], B. Bergues[4], A. Senftleben[6], J. Ullrich[6,7], R. Moshammer[6], G.G. Paulus[8,9], I. Ben-Itzhak[5], M. Lezius[4], M.F. Kling[4,10], H. Zeng[1], R.R. Jones[3], and J. Wu[1]

[1] State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China

[2] Institut für Kernphysik, Goethe Universität, D-60438 Frankfurt, Germany

[3] University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA

[4] Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, D-85748 Garching, Germany

[5] J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA

[6] Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany

[7] Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, D-38116 Braunschweig, Germany

[8] Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena, D-07743 Jena, Germany

[9] Helmholtz Institut Jena, D-07743 Jena, Germany

[10] Department für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, D-85748 Garching, Germany

Abstract:

We study triple-ionization-induced, spatially asymmetric dissociation of N2 using angular streaking in an elliptically polarized laser pulse in conjunction with few-cycle pump-probe experiments. The kinetic-energy-release dependent directional asymmetry in the ion sum-momentum distribution reflects the internuclear distance dependence of the fragmentation mechanism. Our results show that for 5-35 fs near-infrared laser pulses with intensities reaching 10^{15} W/cm^{2}, charge-exchange between nuclei plays a minor role in the triple ionization of N_2. We demonstrate that angular streaking provides a powerful tool for probing multielectron effects in strong field dissociative ionization of small molecules.

Status: Published Physical Review A 89, 043429 (2014).