Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze interferences in photoelectron spectra and momentum distributions in above-threshold ionization of homonuclear diatomic molecules. Two types of these interferences are found: two-ionization-center interferences for direct electrons and two-source–two-rescattering-center interferences for rescattered electrons. We extracted factors responsible for these interferences and analyzed them as functions of the photoelectron emission angle and energy. This is done for strong-field ionization of N\(_2\) and O\(_2\) molecules by an orthogonally polarized two-color laser field. Our second aim is to compare results and physical insights provided by our quantum-mechanical approach and our semi-classical method. Classical approach can explain the value of the cutoff energy for the direct and rescattered electrons and its dependence on the emission angle. In addition, our semi-classical approach provides an insight into the tunneling ionization origin of the process, quantifying its probability and enabling reconstruction of the main features of the photoelectron spectra. Nevertheless, only the quantum-mechanical approach that takes into account interference effects can explain important features of the photoelectron spectra. These effects play a particularly important role in molecular high-order above-threshold ionization spectra due to multicenter molecular structure. We have also examined the interference of partial contributions to the differential ionization rate and analyzed the contributions of atomic orbitals from which our molecular orbital is constructed. Concrete examples of the two-center interference minima are provided and explained using our quantum-mechanical T-matrix approach.
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We gratefully acknowledge support by the Federal Ministry of Education and Science, Bosnia and Herzegovina and by the Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Youth, Canton Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Habibović, D., Gazibegović-Busuladžić, A., Busuladžić, M. et al. Strong-field ionization of diatomic molecules: quantum interferences and a semi-classical model. Opt Quant Electron 54, 505 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-022-03895-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-022-03895-2