Intertwined electron-nuclear motion in frustrated double ionization in driven heteronuclear molecules

TL;DR

This paper investigates frustrated double ionization in driven heteronuclear molecules, revealing distinct energy and quantum number distributions in HeH$^{+}$ compared to H$_2$, highlighting the role of intertwined electron-nuclear dynamics.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of frustrated double ionization in heteronuclear versus homonuclear molecules, identifying signatures of intertwined electron-nuclear motion.

Findings

Multiple peaks in energy distribution for HeH$^{+}$

Multiple peaks in quantum number distribution for HeH$^{+}$

Distinct signatures of electron-nuclear interplay

Abstract

We study frustrated double ionization in a strongly-driven heteronuclear molecule HeH$^{+}$ and compare with H$_2$. We compute the probability distribution of the sum of the final kinetic energies of the nuclei for strongly-driven HeH$^{+}$. We find that this distribution has more than one peak for strongly-driven HeH$^{+}$, a feature we do not find to be present for strongly-driven H$_{2}$. Moreover, we compute the probability distribution of the n quantum number of frustrated double ionization. We find that this distribution has several peaks for strongly-driven HeH$^{+}$, while the respective distribution has one main peak and a "shoulder" at lower n quantum numbers for strongly-driven H$_{2}$. Surprisingly, we find this feature to be a clear signature of the intertwined electron-nuclear motion.