Role of nuclear motion in double ionization of molecular hydrogen by a single photon

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Feb 16;98(7):073001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.073001. Epub 2007 Feb 12.

Abstract

We examine the origin of recently observed variations with internuclear distance (R) of the fully differential cross sections for double ionization of aligned H2 by absorption of a single photon. Using the results of fully converged numerical solutions of the Schrödinger equation, we show that these variations arise primarily from pronounced differences in the R dependence of the parallel and perpendicular components of the ionization amplitude. We also predict that R dependences should be readily observable in the asymmetry parameter for photodouble ionization, even in experimental measurements that are not differential in the energy sharings between ejected photoelectrons.