Abstract
High-order harmonic generation is as a powerful tool for the study of molecular properties. Up to now this investigation tool has been confined to simple molecules, with a relatively high ionization potential, since ionization saturation hindered its exploitation to fragile molecules. In this work we show that such limitation can be overcome by using mid-IR ultrashort driving pulses; as prototypical molecules we considered hydrocarbons. Clear signatures of the highest occupied molecular orbital were found in the harmonic spectra generated in unsaturated aligned hydrocarbons like acetylene, ethylene, allene and 1,3-butadiene. Our findings demonstrate that high-order harmonic generation spectroscopy can be extended to complex molecular species.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the financial support from the ECs Seventh Framework Programme (LASERLAB-EUROPE, Grant Agreement No. 228334), EPSRC Grant No. EP/E028063/1, and the partial support from Fondazione Cariplo (Project No. 2009–2562).
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Vozzi, C. et al. (2012). Toward the Extension of High Order Harmonic Spectroscopy to Complex Molecules: Investigation of Aligned Hydrocarbons. In: Yamanouchi, K., Katsumi, M. (eds) Multiphoton Processes and Attosecond Physics. Springer Proceedings in Physics, vol 125. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28948-4_43
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28948-4_43
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