In cooperation with the National University of Defense Technology, professor Ding Dajun’s group from IAMP have made new progress in molecular strong field autoionization dynamics.The results were published in PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS on March 12, 2021. The novel strong field autoionization (SFAI) dynamics is identified and investigated by channel-resolved angular streaking measurements of two electrons and two ions for the double-ionized CO. Comparing with the laser-assisted autoionization calculations, we demonstrate the electrons from SFAI are generated from the field-induced decay of the autoionizing state with a following acceleration in the laser fields. The energy-dependent photoelectron angular distributions further reveal that the subcycle ac-Stark effect modulates the lifetime of the autoionizing state and controls the emission of SFAI electrons in molecular frame. Our results pave the way to control the emission of resonant high-harmonic generation and trace the electron-electron correlation and electron-nuclear coupling by strong laser fields. The lifetime modulation of quantum systems in the strong laser field has great potential for quantum manipulation of chemical reactions and beyond.

The co-first authors of this study are associate professor Luo and Dr. Li Xiaokai from IAMP and associate professor Liu Jinlei of National University of Defense Technology. The corresponding authors of the study are Dr. Luo, Dr.Ding from the institute and professor Zhao Zengxiu of National University of Defense Technology. The research work was partially supported by the National Key program for S&T Research and Development and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Link to the full text of the article: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.103202