Strong-field triple ionisation of atoms with p 3valence shell

Abstract

The interaction of strong pulsed femtosecond laser field with atoms having three equivalent electrons in the outer shell (p 3 configuration, e.g. nitrogen) is studied via numerical integration of a time-dependent Schrödinger equation on a spatial grid. Single ionisation, double ionisation (DI) and triple ionisation (TI) yields originating from a completely antisymmetric wave function are calculated and extracted using a restricted-geometry model with the soft-core potential and three active electrons. The observed suppression of the ionisation yields for the non-sequential processes, in both DI and TI cases, is attributed to the action of the Pauli principle. Compared against earlier results investigating the s 2 p 1 configuration, we propose that the differences found here might in fact be accessible through electron's momentum distribution.