Suppression of correlated electron escape in double ionization in strong laser fields

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the Pauli exclusion principle suppresses correlated electron escape in double ionization of helium atoms under strong laser fields, highlighting the role of initial atomic states and selection rules.

Contribution

It demonstrates the suppression effect due to initial metastable states and provides numerical evidence using a reduced dimensionality model.

Findings

Correlated electron escape is suppressed in the 3S metastable state.

Selection rules govern the transition to outgoing two-electron states.

Numerical calculations confirm the suppression effect.

Abstract

The effect of the Pauli exclusion principle on double ionization of He atoms by strong, linearly polarized laser pulses is analyzed. We show that correlated electron escape, with electron momenta symmetric with respect to the field polarization axis, is suppressed if atoms are initially prepared in the metastable state 3S. The effect is a consequence of selection rules for the transition to the appropriate outgoing two-electron states. We illustrate the suppression in numerical calculations of electron and ion momentum distributions within a reduced dimensionality model.