Kelkensberg F, Siu W, Pérez-Torres JF, Morales F, Gademann G, Rouzée A, Johnsson P, Lucchini M, Calegari F, Sanz-Vicario JL, Martín F, Vrakking MJJ. Attosecond control in photoionization of hydrogen molecules.
Phys Rev Lett 2011;
107:043002. [PMID:
21866998 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.107.043002]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2011] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
We report experiments where hydrogen molecules were dissociatively ionized by an attosecond pulse train in the presence of a near-infrared field. Fragment ion yields from distinguishable ionization channels oscillate with a period that is half the optical cycle of the IR field. For molecules aligned parallel to the laser polarization axis, the oscillations are reproduced in two-electron quantum simulations, and can be explained in terms of an interference between ionization pathways that involve different harmonic orders and a laser-induced coupling between the 1sσ(g) and 2pσ(u) states of the molecular ion. This leads to a situation where the ionization probability is sensitive to the instantaneous polarization of the molecule by the IR electric field and demonstrates that we have probed the IR-induced electron dynamics with attosecond pulses.
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