Orientation Dependent Dissociative Ionization of H$_2$ in Strong Elliptic Laser Fields: Modification of the release time through molecular orientation

TL;DR

This study explores how the orientation of H$_2$ molecules influences the timing and distribution of electron release during strong field dissociative ionization, revealing orientation-dependent effects linked to two-center interference.

Contribution

It demonstrates that molecular orientation significantly modifies electron release timing and distribution in strong field ionization, highlighting the role of two-center interference effects.

Findings

Electron release time varies with molecular orientation.

Distribution width depends on molecular orientation.

Two-center interference influences ionization dynamics.

Abstract

We investigate the photoelectron angular emission distributions obtained by strong field dissociative ionization of H$_2$ using cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy. In case of employing laser light with an ellipticity close to 0.9 and an intensity of 1.0 $\times$ 10$^{14}$ W/cm$^2$, we find that the most probable release-time of the electron does not generally coincide with the time when the laser field maximizes. The release-time is affected by the molecular orientation. In addition, we observe that the width of the release-time distribution depends on molecular orientation. We attribute this observation to the two-center-interference.