Strong-Field Double Ionization in a Three-Electron Atom: Momentum Distribution Analysis

Abstract: We study strong-field double ionization in a three-electron atom by applying a simplified, reduced-dimensionality model with three active electrons. The influence of the spin-induced symmetry of the spatial part of the wavefunction on the final two-photoectron momentum distribution is discussed. We identify partial momentum distributions originating from different sets of spins of outgoing electrons providing in this way a quantum support connection between V-structure and direct ionization typically explained classically. Changes in the momentum distribution with increasing field amplitude obtained in our simplified model are shown to be well-correlated with experimental data known from the literature. The possible relation between the observed dependencies and different ionization mechanisms is discussed.