No Arabic abstract
We present an implementation of a time-dependent multiconfiguration self-consistent-field (TD-MCSCF) method [R. Anzaki et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 19, 22008 (2017)] with the full configuration interaction expansion for coupled electron-nuclear dynamics in diatomic molecules subject to a strong laser field. In this method, the total wave function is expressed as a superposition of different configurations constructed from time-dependent electronic Slater determinants and time-dependent orthonormal nuclear basis functions. The primitive basis functions of nuclei and electrons are strictly independent of each other without invoking the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Our implementation treats the electronic motion in its full dimensionality on curvilinear coordinates, while the nuclear wave function is propagated on a one-dimensional stretching coordinate with rotational nuclear motion neglected. We apply the present implementation to high-harmonic generation and dissociative ionization of a hydrogen molecule and discuss the role of electron-nuclear correlation.
The multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree-Fock (MCTDHF) method is formulated for treating the coupled electronic and nuclear dynamics of diatomic molecules without the Born- Oppenheimer approximation. The method treats the full dimensionality of the electronic motion, uses no model interactions, and is in principle capable of an exact nonrelativistic description of diatomics in electromagnetic fields. An expansion of the wave function in terms of configurations of orbitals whose dependence on internuclear distance is only that provided by the underlying prolate spheroidal coordinate system is demonstrated to provide the key simplifications of the working equations that allow their practical solution. Photoionization cross sections are also computed from the MCTDHF wave function in calculations using short pulses.
Diatomic molecules (e.g., O$_2$) in intense laser field exhibit a peculiar suppressed ionization behavior compared to their companion atoms. Several physical models have been proposed to account for this suppression while no consensus has been achieved. In this letter, we aim to clarify the underlying mechanisms behind this molecular ionization suppression. Experimental data recorded at midinfrared laser wavelength and its comparison with that at near-infrared wavelength revealed a peculiar wavelength and intensity dependence of the suppressed ionization of O$_2$ with respect to its companion atom of Xe, while N$_2$ behaves like a structureless atom. It is found that the S-matrix theory calculation can reproduce well the experimental observations and unambiguously identifies the significant role of two-center interference effect in the ionization suppression of O$_2$.
Bichromatic extreme-ultraviolet pulses from a seeded free-electron laser enable us to measure photoelectron angular distribution (PAD) as a function of the relative phase between the different wavelength components. The time-dependent multiconfiguration self-consistent-field (TD-MCSCF) methods are powerful multielectron computation methods to accurately simulate such photoionization dynamics from the first principles. Here we propose a method to evaluate the amplitude and phase of each ionization path, which completely determines the photoionization processes, using TD-MCSCF simulation results. The idea is to exploit the capability of TD-MCSCF to calculate the partial wave amplitudes specified by the azimuthal and magnetic angular momenta (l,m) and the m-resolved PAD. The phases of the ionization paths as well as the amplitudes of the paths resulting in the same (l,m) are obtained through global fitting of the expression of the asymmetry parameters to the calculated m-resolved PAD, which depends on the relative phase of the bichromatic field. We apply the present method to ionization of Ne by combined fundamental and second-harmonic XUV pulses, demonstrating that the extracted amplitudes and phases excellently reproduce the asymmetry parameters.
We show that high-order harmonics generated from molecules by intense laser pulses can be expressed as the product of a returning electron wave packet and the photo-recombination cross section (PRCS) where the electron wave packet can be obtained from simple strong-field approximation (SFA) or from a companion atomic target. Using these wave packets but replacing the PRCS obtained from SFA or from the atomic target by the accurate PRCS from molecules, the resulting HHG spectra are shown to agree well with the benchmark results from direct numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation, for the case of H$_2^+$ in laser fields. The result illustrates that these powerful theoretical tools can be used for obtaining high-order harmonic spectra from molecules. More importantly, the results imply that the PRCS extracted from laser-induced HHG spectra can be used for time-resolved dynamic chemical imaging of transient molecules with temporal resolutions down to a few femtoseconds.
We present a simple quantum mechanical model to describe Coulomb explosion of H$_2^+$ by short, intense, infrared laser pulses. The model is based on the length gauge version of the molecular strong-field approximation and is valid for pulses shorter than 50 fs where the process of dissociation prior to ionization is negligible. The results are compared with recent experimental results for the proton energy spectrum [I. Ben-Itzhak et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 073002 (2005), B. D. Esry et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 013003 (2006)]. The predictions of the model reproduce the profile of the spectrum although the peak energy is slightly lower than the observations. For comparison, we also present results obtained by two different tunneling models for this process.