The Role of Super-Atom Molecular Orbitals in Doped Fullerenes in a Femtosecond Intense Laser Field

Abstract

The photoionization of complex targets, such as endohedral fullerenes, in strong laser fields has been studied experimentally and theoretically. We used the prototype Ho3N@C80 interacting with intense (0.1-5×1014 W/cm2), short (30 fs), 800 nm laser pulses giving rise to multiply charged parent ions. The power law dependence of Ho3N@C80 q+, q=1-2, was found to be different from that of C60. Time-dependent density functional theory computations suggest that the fast ionization of the SAMO states in Ho3N@C80 is responsible for the different power law behavior.