Angularly resolved two-photon above-threshold ionization of helium

Abstract

Angularly resolved two-photon single ionization yields of helium resulting after the interaction with an ultrashort XUV pulse are obtained by numerically solving the full dimension time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The angular distributions reveal the underlying dominant mechanism, which depends on the effective photon energy absorbed and the pulse parameters. We specifically explore the contributions of radial and angular electron correlation terms. A single active electron picture is a qualitatively valid approach for the lowest photon energies, even in the above-threshold ionization region. Nonetheless, angular correlation plays a detectable role in the low-energy region and a major role at higher energies when autoionizing states are populated. As the photon energy increases, sequential ionization-excitation dominates; therefore, the resulting probability distributions are explained as the result of two active uncorrelated electrons. This uncorrelated picture fails again for photon energies above ionization potential of the ion.