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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation
Published on: February 4, 2017
Angular tunneling ionization probability of fixed-in-space H2 molecules in intense laser pulses
A Staudte1, S Patchkovskii, D Pavicić
1National Research Council, 100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0R6.
Abstract:
We propose a new approach to obtain molecular frame photoelectron angular distributions from molecules ionized by intense laser pulses. With our method we study the angular tunnel ionization probability of H2 at a wavelength of 800 nm over an intensity range of 2-4.5 x 10(14) W/cm2. We find an anisotropy that is stronger than predicted by any existing model. To explain the observed anisotropy and its strong intensity dependence we develop an analytical model in the framework of the strong-field approximation. It expresses molecular ionization as a product of atomic ionization rate and a Fourier transform of the highest occupied molecular orbital filtered by the strong-field ionization process.
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