Frustrated double ionization of atoms in circularly polarized laser fields

Abstract

We theoretically study frustrated double ionization (FDI) of atoms subjected to intense circularly polarized laser pulses using a three-dimensional classical model. We find a ‘knee’ structure of FDI probability as a function of intensity, which is similar to the intensity dependence of nonsequential double ionization probability. The observation of FDI is more favourable when using targets with low ionization potentials and short driving laser wavelengths. This is attributed to the crucial role of recollision therein, which can be experimentally inferred from the photoelectron momentum distribution generated by FDI. This work provides novel physical insights into FDI dynamics with circular polarization.

Keywords

• frustrated double ionization
• intense circularly polarized laser pulses
• recollision
• nonsequential double ionization