Suppressed tunnelling ionization of the molecule in an intense Ti:sapphire laser pulse

Abstract
The multiphoton ionization of was studied using linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser. Comparing the ion signal versus intensity curve of the singly charged molecular ion with that of an Ar atom with a similar ionization potential, it was found that the rate of ionization of the molecule is much lower than that of the atom. The observation is explained based on the fact that due to the two-centre nature of the potential which produces the barrier for tunnelling, and the orientation of the molecular axis with respect to the laser polarization, the effective barrier is equivalent to that produced by an atom with an effective charge of less than unity. Accordingly, a model is developed which agrees very well with the experimental observation.

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