Momentum transfers in correlation-assisted tunnelling

Abstract

We consider correlation-assisted tunnel ionization of a small molecule by an intense low-frequency laser pulse. In this mechanism, the departing electron excites the state of the ion via a Coulomb interaction. We show that the angular distribution for this process has significant qualitative differences compared to direct tunnelling of an electron from a deeper orbital. These differences could be used to distinguish the two contributions, and give rise to interference effects when the contributions are comparable. The saddle-point approximation is also shown to require special attention in this geometric analysis.