skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The importance of Rydberg orbitals in dissociative ionization of small hydrocarbon molecules in intense laser fields

Journal Article · · Scientific Reports
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [1];  [3];  [2]
  1. Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS (United States). J.R. Macdonald Lab. and Dept. of Physics
  2. Ludwig Maximilian Univ., Munich (Germany). Dept. of Chemistry
  3. Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD (United States). Dept. of Physics
  4. Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS (United States). J.R. Macdonald Lab. and Dept. of Physics; Ludwig Maximilian Univ., Munich (Germany). Dept. of Physics

Much of our intuition about strong-field processes is built upon studies of diatomic molecules, which typically have electronic states that are relatively well separated in energy. In polyatomic molecules, however, the electronic states are closer together, leading to more complex interactions. A combined experimental and theoretical investigation of strong-field ionization followed by hydrogen elimination in the hydrocarbon series C2D2, C2D4 and C2D6 reveals that the photofragment angular distributions can only be understood when the field-dressed orbitals rather than the field-free orbitals are considered. Our measured angular distributions and intensity dependence show that these field-dressed orbitals can have strong Rydberg character for certain orientations of the molecule relative to the laser polarization and that they may contribute significantly to the hydrogen elimination dissociative ionization yield. Thus, these findings suggest that Rydberg contributions to field-dressed orbitals should be routinely considered when studying polyatomic molecules in intense laser fields.

Research Organization:
Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division; Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); National Science Foundation (NSF); German Science Foundation (DFG)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-09ER16115; SC0002378
OSTI ID:
1418580
Journal Information:
Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, Issue 1; ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 9 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (96)

High Harmonic Generation from Multiple Orbitals in N2 journal November 2008
Strong-field control and spectroscopy of attosecond electron-hole dynamics in molecules journal September 2009
Concerted quantum effects of electronic and nuclear fluxes in molecules journal October 2009
Attosecond Science book January 2013
Control and femtosecond time-resolved imaging of torsion in a chiral molecule journal May 2012
Theory of Tunnel Ionization in Complex Systems journal August 2005
Dyson orbitals for ionization from the ground and electronically excited states within equation-of-motion coupled-cluster formalism: Theory, implementation, and examples journal December 2007
Effects of multi orbital contributions in the angular-dependent ionization of molecules in intense few-cycle laser pulses journal December 2009
Duration of an intense laser pulse can determine the breakage of multiple chemical bonds journal August 2015
Subfemtosecond steering of hydrocarbon deprotonation through superposition of vibrational modes journal May 2014
Incorporating real time velocity map image reconstruction into closed-loop coherent control journal November 2014
Ultrafast Extreme Ultraviolet Induced Isomerization of Acetylene Cations journal December 2010
Control of Electron Localization in Molecular Dissociation journal April 2006
Imaging ultrafast molecular dynamics with laser-induced electron diffraction journal March 2012
Strong Field Ionization to Multiple Electronic States in Water journal August 2011
Fundamentals of Photonics book January 1991
Single-shot carrier–envelope phase measurement of few-cycle laser pulses journal April 2009
Strong field ionization to multiple electronic states in water text January 2011
Nonadiabatic Multielectron Dynamics in Strong Field Molecular Ionization journal January 2001
Attosecond control of electron dynamics in carbon monoxide text January 2009
Suppressed tunnelling ionization of the molecule in an intense Ti:sapphire laser pulse journal January 1998
Pump and Probe of Ultrafast Charge Reorganization in Small Peptides: A Computational Study through Sudden Ionizations journal September 2013
Photoelectron imaging spectrometry: Principle and inversion method journal June 1996
Migration of holes: Formalism, mechanisms, and illustrative applications journal March 2003
Multiorbital Tunneling Ionization of the CO Molecule journal April 2012
An electronic time scale in chemistry journal April 2006
A framework for understanding molecular ionization in strong laser fields journal June 2002
Polyatomic molecules in strong laser fields: Nonadiabatic multielectron dynamics journal July 2002
Rings in above-threshold ionization: A quasiclassical analysis journal February 1995
Effect of an intense electromagnetic field on a weakly bound system journal November 1980
Multichannel coherence in strong-field ionization journal May 2009
Multiple absorption of laser photons by atoms journal April 1973
The Role of Super-Atom Molecular Orbitals in Doped Fullerenes in a Femtosecond Intense Laser Field journal July 2017
Creation of multihole molecular wave packets via strong-field ionization journal July 2010
Visualizing electron rearrangement in space and time during the transition from a molecule to atoms journal November 2010
Strong-field rescattering physics—self-imaging of a molecule by its own electrons journal June 2010
Dynamic Exchange in the Strong Field Ionization of Molecules journal September 2015
Neutral-Ionic State Correlations in Strong-Field Molecular Ionization journal November 2012
Coulomb corrections and polarization effects in high-intensity high-harmonic emission journal July 1996
Angular Tunneling Ionization Probability of Fixed-in-Space H 2 Molecules in Intense Laser Pulses journal January 2009
Multiorbital tunneling ionization of the CO molecule text January 2012
Adaptive strong-field control of chemical dynamics guided by three-dimensional momentum imaging journal December 2013
Strong-field ionization dynamics of a model H 2 molecule journal February 2002
Sub-laser-cycle electron pulses for probing molecular dynamics journal June 2002
Real-time observation of valence electron motion journal August 2010
10th anniversary of attosecond pulses journal March 2012
Review of attosecond resolved measurement and control via carrier–envelope phase tagging with above-threshold ionization journal March 2012
Glory scattering in deeply inelastic molecular collisions journal March 2022
Electron-Nuclear Energy Sharing in Above-Threshold Multiphoton Dissociative Ionization of H 2 journal July 2013
Probing Proton Dynamics in Molecules on an Attosecond Time Scale journal March 2006
Strong Field Molecular Ionization in the Impulsive Limit: Freezing Vibrations with Short Pulses journal February 2016
Attosecond control of electronic processes by intense light fields journal February 2003
Above-threshold ionization with subpicosecond laser pulses journal September 1987
Following a chemical reaction using high-harmonic interferometry journal July 2010
Controlling the Interference of Multiple Molecular Orbitals in High-Harmonic Generation journal June 2010
Tabletop imaging of structural evolutions in chemical reactions demonstrated for the acetylene cation journal July 2014
High harmonic interferometry of multi-electron dynamics in molecules journal July 2009
Attosecond tracing of correlated electron-emission in non-sequential double ionization journal January 2012
Pulse-shape-dependent strong-field ionization viewed with velocity-map imaging journal November 2011
Strong field molecular ionization to multiple ionic states: direct versus indirect pathways journal June 2014
The physics of attosecond light pulses journal May 2004
Carrier-envelope-phase dependence of asymmetric C D bond breaking in C2D2 in an intense few-cycle laser field journal March 2014
Ratiometric Comparison of Intense Field Ionization of Atoms and Diatomic Molecules text January 2001
Molecular imaging using recolliding electrons journal August 2007
The effects of dissociative recombination in multiphoton ionization of journal September 1996
Visualizing Electron Rearrangement in Space and Time during the Transition from a Molecule to Atoms conference January 2010
Laser Tunnel Ionization from Multiple Orbitals in HCl journal September 2009
Elusive enhanced ionization structure for H 2 + in intense ultrashort laser pulses journal December 2008
The Role of Super-Atom Molecular Orbitals in Doped Fullerenes in a Femtosecond Intense Laser Field journal March 2017
Stereocontrol of attosecond time-scale electron dynamics in ABCU using ultrafast laser pulses: a computational study journal January 2011
Strong-Field Molecular Ionization from Multiple Orbitals journal November 2011
Tomographic imaging of molecular orbitals journal December 2004
Time-Resolved Holography with Photoelectrons journal December 2010
Ionization and dissociation of H 2 in intense laser fields at 1.064 μm, 532 nm, and 355 nm journal November 1990
Ratiometric Comparison of Intense Field Ionization of Atoms and Diatomic Molecules journal September 2001
Effects Of Molecular Structure on Ion Disintegration Patterns In Ionization of O 2 and N 2 by Short Laser Pulses journal September 2004
Attosecond imaging of molecular electronic wavepackets journal January 2010
Selective Control over Fragmentation Reactions in Polyatomic Molecules Using Impulsive Laser Alignment journal April 2014
Charge-resonance-enhanced ionization of diatomic molecular ions by intense lasers journal October 1995
Double Ionization of Nitrogen from Multiple Orbitals journal July 2010
Attosecond Electron Wave Packet Dynamics in Strong Laser Fields journal June 2005
Strong Field Molecular Ionization in the Impulsive Limit: Freezing Vibrations with Short Pulses text January 2016
Theory of molecular tunneling ionization journal September 2002
Time-Resolved Electron Diffraction from Selectively Aligned Molecules journal May 2009
Signatures of the continuum electron phase in molecular strong-field photoelectron holography journal July 2014
Probing molecular dynamics with attosecond resolution using correlated wave packet pairs journal February 2003
Attosecond Control of Electron Dynamics in Carbon Monoxide journal September 2009
Attosecond physics journal February 2009
Velocity map imaging of ions and electrons using electrostatic lenses: Application in photoelectron and photofragment ion imaging of molecular oxygen journal September 1997
Real-time pulse length measurement of few-cycle laser pulses using above-threshold ionization journal January 2011
Multi-channel Electronic and Vibrational Dynamics in Polyatomic High-order Harmonic Generation text January 2014
Plasma perspective on strong field multiphoton ionization journal September 1993
Multichannel coherence in strong-field ionization text January 2009
Multi-channel electronic and vibrational dynamics in polyatomic resonant high-order harmonic generation journal January 2015
Comparison of intense-field ionization of diatomic molecules and rare-gas atoms journal July 2002
Field-dressed orbitals in strong-field molecular ionization journal October 2015

Cited By (1)

Deformation of an inner valence molecular orbital in ethanol by an intense laser field journal May 2019

Similar Records

Predissociation of high-lying Rydberg states of molecular iodine via ion-pair states
Journal Article · Fri Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Chemical Physics · OSTI ID:1418580

Ionization of N{sub 2}, O{sub 2}, and linear carbon clusters in a strong laser pulse
Journal Article · Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2004 · Physical Review. A · OSTI ID:1418580

Rotationally resolved photoelectron spectra in resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization of H sub 2 O via the C sup 1 B sub 1 Rydberg state
Journal Article · Tue Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 1992 · Journal of Chemical Physics; (United States) · OSTI ID:1418580