Singularity in electron-core potential as a gateway to accurate multi-electron ionization spectra in strongly driven atoms

Abstract

We demonstrate a general three-dimensional semiclassical model as a powerful technique for the study of correlated multi-electron escape in atoms driven by infrared laser pulses at intensities where electron-electron correlation prevails. We do so in the context of triple ionization of strongly driven Ne. We show that a drawback of other current quantum mechanical and classical models of triple ionization is that they soften the Coulomb potential of each electron with the core. The model we employ fully accounts for the singularity in the Coulomb potentials of a recolliding electron with the core and a bound electron with the core as well as for the interaction of a recolliding with a bound electron. Our model treats approximately only the interaction between bound electrons through the use of effective potentials. These effective potentials ensure that no artificial autoionization takes place as a result of the full treatment of the electron-core potential. We demonstrate the accuracy of our model by obtaining triple ionization distributions of the sum of the final electron momenta which we find to be in very good agreement with experiments. Also, we explain the main features of these momenta distributions in terms of the prevalent pathways of correlated three-electron escape in Ne. We also show that the different ionization pathways prevailing in three-electron escape in strongly driven Ne versus Ar give rise to different momenta distributions in these two atoms.