Asymmetric electron energy sharing in strong-field double ionization of helium

TL;DR

This study uses a classical ensemble model to explore how asymmetric energy sharing during recollision influences double ionization in helium, revealing new insights into electron momentum correlations and three-body interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of asymmetric energy sharing in recollision dynamics, highlighting its role in observed momentum spectra in strong-field double ionization.

Findings

Asymmetric energy sharing affects the V-shaped electron momentum spectrum.

Transverse momentum spectra reveal footprints of asymmetric recollision.

Insights into attosecond three-body interactions are provided.

Abstract

With the classical three-dimensional ensemble model, we have investigated the microscopic recollision dynamics in nonsequential double ionization of helium by 800 nm laser pulses at 2.0 PW/cm^2. We demonstrate that the asymmetric energy sharing between the two electrons at recollision plays a decisive role in forming the experimentally observed V-shaped structure in the correlated longitudinal electron momentum spectrum at the high laser intensity [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 263003 (2007)]. This asymmetric energy sharing recollision leaves footprints on the transverse electron momentum spectra, which provide a new insight into the attosecond three-body interactions.