Our paper on Strong Electron-Electron-Nuclei Correlations in Two-Photon Double Ionization of H₂ has been published in Physical Review Letters!

Two-photon double ionization is a paradigmatic example of electron correlation. In molecular targets, the coupling with nuclear motion introduces additional complexity and induces electron-electron-nuclei correlations. In this work, we present a full-dimensional treatment of two-photon double ionization of the H₂ molecule.

We show that nuclear motion plays a decisive role even for pulses as short as 1.5 fs, a time during which the nuclei are not expected to move significantly. Our results reveal:

  • Strong correlations between nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom
  • Access to different electronic processes as a function of nuclear kinetic energy
  • Unexpectedly strong back-to-back asymmetry in photoelectron angular distributions
  • Novel interferences from coherent contributions via different molecular cationic states

This work demonstrates the importance of including nuclear dynamics in attosecond physics, even on timescales where they might naively be expected to be negligible.

This work was done in collaboration with Kilian Arteaga, Denis Jelovina, Fernando Martín, and Alicia Palacios.