Nondipole electron momentum offset as a probe of correlated three electron ionization in strongly driven atoms

Abstract

We employ a recently developed three-dimensional semiclassical model to identify nondipole effects in triple ionization of Ne driven by infrared laser pulses at intensities where electron-electron correlation prevails. This model fully accounts for the Coulomb interaction of each electron with the core and avoids artificial autoionization by employing effective Coulomb potentials to describe the interaction between bound electrons (ECBB). Using the ECBB model, we identify a prominent signature of nondipole effects. Namely, the component along the direction of light propagation of the average sum of the final electron momenta is large and positive. That is, we identify a positive momentum offset, absent in the dipole approximation. We find that this positive momentum offset stems mostly from the momentum change due to the magnetic field. To further understand this momentum change, we also develop a simple model for the motion of an electron inside an electromagnetic field. This simple model accounts for the effect of the Coulomb forces only as a sharp change in the momentum of the electron during recollision. We show that the momentum change due to the magnetic field is related with the sharp change in momentum during recollision for the recolliding electron as well as with the time of recollision for both the recolliding and bound electrons. Hence, we demonstrate that the final electron momentum offset probes the strength of a recollision and hence the degree of correlation in multielectron ionization.