Abstract

It is widely accepted that the ionization probability of molecule depends on internuclear distance and strongly peaks at a critical distance larger than its equilibrium value. A commonly accepted mechanism of this phenomenon called enhanced ionization is depicted in Fig. 1 (a) [1]. Around the critical distance (middle panel), the electron begins to localize in each potential well. Then, the electron in the up-field well can easily ionize through the inner barrier directly to the continuum. The genuineness of this view is, however, still under debate and a subject of active research [2,3]. Here, we theoretically investigate the mechanism of enhanced ionization [4] in two-electron molecules by analyzing Bohmian trajectories, which can visualize the probability current, for a one-dimensional H₂ in an intense laser field.

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