Three-electron correlations in strong laser field ionization: Spin induced effects

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electron spin influences three-electron ionization dynamics in strong laser fields, revealing spin-dependent effects through momentum correlations that differ between model Neon and Nitrogen atoms.

Contribution

It introduces the first analysis of three-electron momentum correlations in strong fields considering spin effects using an ab-initio time-dependent Schrödinger equation approach.

Findings

Significant differences in electron momentum correlations between Neon and Nitrogen models.

Differences are linked to wavefunction symmetries and initial spin states.

Spin effects can influence observable ionization outcomes in multi-electron systems.

Abstract

Strong field processes in the non-relativistic regime are insensitive to the electron spin, i.e. the observables appear to be independent of this electron property. This does not have to be the case for several active electrons where Pauli principle may affect the their dynamics. We exemplify this statement studying model atoms with three active electrons interacting with strong pulsed radiation, using an ab-initio time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation on a grid. In our restricted dimensionality model we are able, for the first time, to analyse momenta correlations of the three outgoing electrons using Dalitz plots. We show that significant differences are obtained between model Neon and Nitrogen atoms. These differences are traced back to the different symmetries of the electronic wavefunctions, and directly related to the different initial state spin components.