Laser-induced dissociative ionization of H2 from the near-infrared to the mid-infrared regime

Abstract

We apply the Monte Carlo wave packet (MCWP) approach to investigate the kinetic energy release (KER) spectra of the protons following double ionization in H2 when interacting with laser pulses with central wavelengths ranging from the near-infrared (IR) (800 nm) to the mid-IR (6400 nm) regions and with durations of 3-21 laser cycles. We uncover the physical origins of the peaks in the nuclear KER spectra and ascribe them to mechanisms such as ionization following a resonant dipole transition, charge-resonance-enhanced ionization, and ionization in the dissociative limit of large internuclear distances. For relatively large pulse durations, i.e., for 15 or more laser cycles at 3200 nm and 10 or more at 6400 nm, it is possible for the nuclear wave packet in H2+ to reach very large separations. Ionization of this part of the wave packet results in peaks in the KER spectra with very low energies. These peaks give direct information about the dissociative energy in the 2pσu potential energy curve of H2+ at the one- and three-photon resonances between the 2pσu and 1sσg curves in H2+. With the MCWP approach, we perform a trajectory analysis of the contributions to the KER peaks and identify the dominant ionization pathways. Finally, we consider a pump-probe scheme by applying two delayed pulses to track the nuclear dynamics in a time-resolved setting. Low-energy peaks appear for large delays and these are used to obtain the 2pσu dissociative energy values at the one-photon resonance between the 2pσu and 1sσg curves in H2+ for different wavelengths.