Ai. Pegarkov, Electron excitation and 'cascade' ionization of diatomic molecules with ultra-short pulses of strong IR lasers, CHEM P LETT, 343(5-6), 2001, pp. 642-648
The dynamics of molecular electron excitation and ionization is studied in
real time for ultra-short IR laser pulses of intensity I > 10(13) W/cm(2).
The multi-electron molecule is modeled by a system of two active electrons
moving in the field of the frozen core. The time dependence of electron pro
bability, electron energy, and one-electron/two-electron ionization probabi
lity are calculated for the example of the N-2 molecule and a laser pulse w
ith lambda = 800 nm, tau = 5 fs. The electron dynamics of the pulse-excited
molecule is considered also after the pulse end. The results show that in
strong IR pulses of I greater than or equal to 10(16) W/cm(2) the molecule
undergoes a cascade ionization, where the one electron is emitted with the
same probability as a pair of electrons. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Sci
ence B.V.