Simulations of the correlated momentum distributions for nonsequential double ionization of neon in elliptically polarized laser fields

Abstract

Abstract We use the improved quantitative rescattering (QRS) model to simulate the experimentally measured correlated two-electron momentum distributions (CMDs) for nonsequential double ionization (NSDI) of Ne exposed to intense elliptically polarized laser pulses with a central wavelength of 788 nm at a peak intensity of 5 × 10 14 W cm−2 for the ellipticities ranging from 0 to 0.25 (Kang et al 2018 Phys. Rev. A 97 063403). Only the CMDs for recollision direct ionization are calculated and the contribution from recollision excitation with subsequent ionization is ignored. With the assumption that recollisions occur after the zero crossing of the electric field along the major polarization, the QRS model successfully reproduces the experimentally observed asymmetry pattern of electron pairs in the CMDs for NSDI of Ne under elliptical polarization. By reducing the peak intensity claimed in experiment by about 30%, good agreement is achieved between the present results and the experimental measurements.