We measure photoelectron angular distributions of noble gases in intense elliptically polarized laser fields, which indicate strong structure-dependent Coulomb asymmetry. Using a dedicated semiclassical model, we have disentangled the contribution of direct ionization and multiple forward scattering on Coulomb asymmetry in elliptical laser fields. Our theory quantifies the roles of the ionic potential and initial transverse momentum on Coulomb asymmetry, proving that the small lobes of asymmetry are induced by direct ionization and the strong asymmetry is induced by multiple forward scattering in the ionic potential. Both processes are distorted by the Coulomb force acting on the electrons after tunneling. Lowering the ionization potential, the relative contribution of direct ionization on Coulomb asymmetry substantially decreases and Coulomb focusing on multiple rescattering is more important. We do not observe evident initial longitudinal momentum spread at the tunnel exit according to our simulation.

We present the first numerical simulation of the time delay in the photoionization of the simplest diatomic molecule H + 2 as observed by attosecond streaking. We show that the strong variation of the Eisenbud-Wigner-Smith time delay tEWS as a function of energy and emission angle becomes observable in the streaking time shift tS provided laser field-induced components are accounted for. The strongly enhanced photoemission time shifts are traced to destructive Cohen-Fano (or two-center) interferences. Signatures of these interferences in the streaking trace are shown to be enhanced when the ionic fragments are detected in coincidence.

We demonstrate that ultrashort pulses carry the possibility for a new regime of light-matter interaction with nonadiabatic electron processes sensitive to the envelope derivative of the light pulse. A standard single pulse with its two peaks in the derivative separated by the width of the pulse acts in this regime like a traditional double pulse. The two ensuing nonadiabatic ionization bursts have slightly different ionization amplitudes. This difference is due to the redistribution of continuum electron energy during the bursts, negligible in standard photoionization. A time-dependent close-coupling approach based on cycle-averaged potentials in the Kramers-Henneberger reference frame permits a detailed understanding of light-pulse derivative-driven electron dynamics.

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We present a theoretical study of the low-energy photoelectron spectra of hydrogen molecular ion generated by a single attosecond pulse in the presence of an infrared (IR) laser field. In order to investigate this type of attosecond streaking of molecules, we developed a very efficient grid-based numerical method to solve the two-centre time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) in the prolate spheroidal coordinates. Specifically, the radial coordinate is discretized with the finite-element discrete variable representation (FE-DVR) for easy parallel computation and the angular coordinate with the usual DVR. A wavefunction splitting scheme is utilized to reduce the demanding requirement of the computational resource to solve the corresponding TDSE when an IR field is present. After verification of the accuracy and efficiency of our method, we then apply it to investigate the attosecond streaking spectra of H+2 in the low-energy region. In contrast to the usual attosecond streaking in the high-energy region, part of the low-energy electrons may be driven back to rescatter with the residual two-centre core. Very interesting interference structures are present in the low-energy region. When the internuclear distance is small, they are very similar to what we have recently observed in the atomic case.