Dynamic exchange in the strong field ionization of molecules

Abstract

We show that dynamic exchange is a dominant effect in strong field ionization of molecules. In $CO_2$ it fixes the peak ionization yield at the experimentally observed angle of $45^\circ$ between polarization direction and the molecular axis. In $N_2$ it changes the alignment dependence of yields by up to a factor of 2. The effect appears on the Hartree-Fock level as well as in full {\it ab initio} solutions of the Schr\"odinger equation.