Enhanced recollisions for antisymmetric molecular orbitals in intense laser fields

Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Oct 6;97(14):143901. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.143901. Epub 2006 Oct 2.

Abstract

The peculiarities of antisymmetric molecular orbitals are investigated in very intense linearly polarized laser pulses. For this purpose, the ionization-recollision quantum dynamics is evaluated theoretically beyond the dipole approximation. As opposed to the usual situation, the laser magnetic field component is found to strongly enhance recollision probabilities for particularly oriented antisymmetric molecular orbitals. Harmonic generation and related processes are thus allowed at high laser intensities without the common limitations by the laser magnetic field.