Autler-townes effects in attosecond circular polarization molecular photoionization

Abstract

We present molecular photoionization simulations by intense (I ∼ 1016 W/cm2) few cycle circularly polarized attosecond extreme ultraviolet laser pulses for aligned H2+ from numerical solutions of the corresponding time-dependent Schrodinger equation. With appropriate laser pulse parameters, circular attosecond coherent electron wave packets (CEWPs) are created in excited Rydberg states. Such CEWPs are spatially localized during ionization processes, thus resulting in sufficient population oscillations between the resonant excited Rydberg states and the initial ground state. Consequently Autler-Townes splitting in circular polarization energy spectra is predicted, which is shown to be critically sensitive to the pulse intensity, duration, and polarization. The resulting photoelectron angular distributions are rotated with respect to the molecular axis due to the nonspherical Coulomb potential of the molecule, resulting in different ionization rates at different laser polarization-molecular angles. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.