Temporal and spatial interference in molecular above-threshold ionization with elliptically polarized fields

Abstract

We investigate direct above-threshold ionization in diatomic molecules, with\nparticular emphasis on how quantum interference is altered by a driving field\nof non-vanishing ellipticity. This interference may be either temporal, i.e.,\nrelated to ionization events occurring at different times, or spatial, i.e.,\nrelated to the electron emission at different centers in the molecule.\nEmploying the strong-field approximation and saddle-point methods, we find\nthat, in general, for non-vanishing ellipticity, there will be a blurring of\nthe temporal and spatial interference patterns. The former blurring is caused\nby the electron velocity component perpendicular to the major polarization\naxis, while spatial interference is washed out as a consequence either of s-p\nmixing, or of the temporal dependence of the ionization prefactor. Both types\nof interference are analyzed in detail in terms of electron trajectories, and\nspecific conditions for which sharp fringes occur are provided.\n

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• Chinese Academy of Sciences CN
• Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics CN
• University College London GB

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