Double-electron ionization driven by inhomogeneous fields

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that plasmonic-enhanced inhomogeneous fields significantly increase the double ionization yield in helium and help distinguish different electron emission processes, advancing control over electron dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical model showing how inhomogeneous fields enhance NSDI and enable separation of binary and recoil electron processes.

Findings

Inhomogeneous fields increase double ionization yield at lower laser intensities.

The model distinguishes binary and recoil electron processes.

Both quantum and classical simulations support the enhancement effects.

Abstract

Electron-electron correlation effects play an instrumental role in our understanding of sequential (SDI) and non-sequential double ionization (NSDI) mechanisms. Here, we present a theoretical study of NSDI driven by plasmonic-enhanced spatial inhomogeneous fields. By numerically solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation for a linear reduced model of He and a double-electron time-evolution probability analysis, we provide evidence for the enhancement effects in NSDI showing that the double ionization yield at lower laser peak intensities is increased due to the inhomogeneity of the laser field. Furthermore, our quantum mechanical model, as well as classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulations, show that inhomogeneous fields are a useful tool for splitting the binary and recoil processes in the rescattering scenario.