Using the eigenchannel R-matrix method we calculate partial photoionization cross sections from the ground state of the helium atom for incident photon energies up to the N=9 manifold. The wide energy range covered by our calculations permits a thorough investigation of general patterns in the cross sections which were first discussed by Menzel and co-workers [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 54}, 2080 (1996)]. The existence of these patterns can easily be understood in terms of propensity rules for autoionization. As the photon energy is increased the regular patterns are locally interrupted by perturber states until they fade out indicating the progressive break-down of the propensity rules and the underlying approximate quantum numbers. We demonstrate that the destructive influence of isolated perturbers can be compensated with an energy-dependent quantum defect.
We account for the different symmetries of the 2^{1,3}S helium excited states in a quasiclassical description of the knockout mechanism augmented by a quantum shakeoff contribution. We are thus able to formulate the separate contribution of the knockout and shakeoff mechanisms for double photoionization for any excess energy from the 2^{1,3}S states. Photoionization ratios and singly differential cross sections calculated for the 2^{1,3}S excited states of helium are found to be in very good agreement with recent theoretical results.
A fully relativistic calculation of the double photoionization of helium-like atoms is presented. The approach is based on the partial-wave representation of the Dirac continuum states and accounts for the retardation in the electron-electron interaction as well as the higher-order multipoles of the absorbed photon. The electron-electron interaction is taken into account to the leading order of perturbation theory. The relativistic effects are shown to become prominent already for the medium-Z ions, changing the shape and the asymptotic behaviour of the photon energy dependence of the ratio of…
Hyperspherical partial wave approach has been applied here in the study of double photoionization of the helium atom for equal energy sharing geometry at 20 eV excess energy. Calculations have been done both in length and velocity gauges and are found to agree with each other, with the CCC results and with experiments and exhibit some advantages of the corresponding three particle wave function over other wave functions in use.
We investigate the angle-resolved photoelectron spectra from laser-assisted photoionization for helium and neon atoms using an \textit{ab initio} method based on time-dependent surface flux and configuration interaction singles. We find that the shape of the distributions can be interpreted using a propensity rule, an intrinsic difference in the absorption and emission processes, as well as interference effects between multiple paths to the final angular momentum state. In neon we find that the difference between absorption and emission is hidden in the first sideband due to the multiple compe…
The cross section for single K-shell ionization by a high-energy photon is evaluated in the next-to-leading order of the nonrelativistic perturbation theory with respect to the electron-electron interaction. The screening corrections are of particular importance for light helium-like ions. Even in the case of neutral He atom, our analytical predictions turn out to be in good agreement with the numerical calculations performed with the use of the sophisticated wave functions. The universal high-energy behavior is studied for the ratio of double-to-single photoionization cross sections. We also …
In a joint experimental and theoretical endeavour, photoionization of metastable C4+(1s 2s 3S1) ions via intermediate levels with hollow, double-K-vacancy configurations 2s2p, 2s3p, 2p3s, 2p3d, 2s4p, 2p4s and 2p4d has been investigated. High-resolution photon-ion merged-beams measurements were carried out with the resolving power reaching up to 25,000 which is sufficient to separate the leading fine-structure components of the 2s2p 3P term. Many-body perturbation theory was employed to determine level-to-level cross sections for K-shell excitation with subsequent autoionization. The resonance …
We investigate the photoionization spectrum of helium by attosecond XUV pulses both in the spectral region of doubly excited resonances as well as above the double ionization threshold. In order to probe for convergence, we compare three techniques to extract photoelectron spectra from the wavepacket resulting from the integration of the time-dependent Schroedinger equation in a finite-element discrete variable representation basis. These techniques are: projection on products of hydrogenic bound and continuum states, projection onto multi-channel scattering states computed in a B-spline clos…
Using extreme-ultraviolet attosecond-pulse-trains, we investigate the photoionization dynamics of a Helium atom in the presence of moderately-strong (~10^12 W/cm^2) femtosecond laser pulses. The electronic structure of a laser-dressed atom is traced in real-time through precision measurements of ion-yields and photo-electron angular distributions. Quantum interferences between photo-excitation paths are interpreted using the Floquet formalism. As the laser pulse intensity ramps on femtosecond timescales, we observe transitions between ionization channels mediated by different atomic resonances…
We discuss the results of the calculation of the photoionization with de-excitation of excited He and helium-like ions Li$^{+}$ and B$^{3+}$ at high but non-relativistic photon energies $ω$. Several lower $^{1}S$ and $^{3}S$ states are considered. We present and analyze the ratios $R_{d}^{+\ast}$ of the cross sections of photoionization with de-excitation, $σ_{(d)}^{+\ast}(ω)$, and of the photo-ionization with excitation, $σ^{+\ast}(ω)$. The dependence of $R_{d}^{+\ast}$ on the excitation of the target object and the charge of its nucleus is presented. Apart to theoretical interest, results ob…
The dynamics of vibrational wave packets in triplet states of rubidium dimers (Rb2) formed on helium nanodroplets are studied using femtosecond pump-probe photoionization spectroscopy. Due to fast desorption of the excited Rb2 molecules off the droplets and due to their low internal temperature, wave packet oscillations can be followed up to very long pump-probe delay times >1.5ns. In the first excited triplet state (1)^3Σ_g^+, full and fractional revivals are observed with high contrast. Fourier analysis provides high-resolution vibrational spectra which are in excellent agreement with ab ini…
We calculate the double differential distributions and distributions in recoil momenta for the high energy non-relativistic double photoionization of helium. We show that the results of recent experiments is the pioneering experimental manifestation of the quasifree mechanism for the double photoionization, predicted long ago in our papers. This mechanism provides a surplus in distribution over the recoil momenta at small values of the latter, corresponding to nearly "back-to-back" emission of the electrons. Also in agreement with previous analysis the surplus is due to the quadrupole terms of…
We calculated ab initio the three-fold differential cross section of a double single-photon Helium photoionization at equal energy sharing, and obtained from one the Gaussian width parameter, describing the angular interelectron correlations, for the total electrons energies range E from 0.1 eV to 100 eV. The results are in excellent agreement with experimental data but indicate that the Wannier threshold law for angular distribition is not correct at energies attainable in modern experiments. It is shown that the Gaussian width parameter dependence on energy is much better described by the mo…
We outline a non-perturbative procedure for calculating the total photoionization cross-section of two-electron atomic systems. The procedure is based on the Floquet-Fourie representation of the solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. The Floquet-Fourie ansatz produces a set of equations which is recast into a generalized eigenvalue problem by means of the complex rotation procedure. With the use of the Hylleraas-type basis functions, the total photoionization cross-sections are obtained within the accuracy of a fraction of a percent. The total photoionization cross-sections for n…
We present a generalization of the pioneering results obtained for single K-shell photoionization of H-like ions by M. Stobbe [Ann. Phys. 7 (1930) 661] to the case of the helium isoelectronic sequence. The total cross section of the process is calculated, taking into account the correlation corrections to first order of the perturbation theory with respect to the electron-electron interaction. Predictions are made for the entire non-relativistic energy domain. The phenomenon of dynamical suppression of correlation effects in the ionization cross section is discussed.
In this article we present triple differential cross sections for equal energy sharing kinematics for double photoionization of the helium atom at 20 and 40eV above threshold in the framework of the hyperspherical partial wave theory. This supplements our earlier work \cite{DCP03} in which we were successful in showing fully, gauge independence of the results in our formalism. Also in this work we treat cases in which the Stokes parameter S$_1 < 1$ so that partial polarization of the photon source is also taken into account. Agreement in shape with the Convergent Close Coupling \cite{BK03,HB98…
Double photoionization by a single photon is often discussed in terms of two contributing mechanisms, {\it knock-out} (two-step-one) and {\it shake-off} with the latter being a pure quantum effect. It is shown that a quasi-classical description of knock-out and a simple quantum calculation of shake-off provides a clear separation of the mechanisms and facilitates their calculation considerably. The relevance of each mechanism at different photon energies is quantified for helium. Photoionization ratios, integral and singly differential cross sections obtained by us are in excellent agreement w…
Partial autoionization rates of doubly excited one-dimensional helium in the collinear Zee and eZe configuration are obtained by means of the complex rotation method. The approach presented here relies on a projection of back-rotated resonance wave functions onto singly ionized $\textrm{He}^{+}$ channel wave functions and the computation of the corresponding particle fluxes. In spite of the long-range nature of the Coulomb potential between the electrons and the nucleus, an asymptotic region where the fluxes are stationary is clearly observed. Low-lying doubly excited states are found to decay…
A review of some recently developed methods of calculating multiple differential cross-sections of photoionization and electron impactionization of atoms and molecules having two active electrons is presented. The methods imply original approaches to calculating three-particle Coulomb wave functions. The external complex scaling method and the formalism of the Schroedinger equation with a source in the right-hand side are considered. Efficiency of the time-dependent approaches to the scattering problem, such as the paraxial approximation and the time-dependent scaling, is demonstrated. An orig…
It is demonstrated for the first time that in spite of well known big similarities between atomic ionization by photons and fast electrons, a qualitative difference exists in angular anisotropy parameters of electrons knocked out in these processes. The difference is disclosed here and attributed to distinction between normal (transverse) and virtual (longitudinal) photons. Formulas are derived for dipole and non-dipole angular anisotropy parameters in fast electronatom scattering. The ratio of quadrupole-to-dipole matrix elements is determined by the parameter ωR/v << 1 where ωis the transfer…
Attosecond photoionisation time delays reveal information about the potential energy landscape an outgoing electron wavepacket probes upon ionisation. In this study we experimentally quantify, for the first time, the dependence of the time delay on the angular momentum of the liberated photoelectrons. For this purpose, electron quantum-path interference spectra have been resolved in energy and angle using a two-color attosecond pump-probe photoionisation experiment in helium. A fitting procedure of the angle-dependent interference pattern allows us to disentangle the relative phase of all four…
We present accurate time-dependent ab initio calculations on fully differential and total integrated (generalized) cross sections for the nonsequential two-photon double ionization of helium at photon energies from 40 to 54 eV. Our computational method is based on the solution of the time-dependent Schroedinger equation and subsequent projection of the wave function onto Coulomb waves. We compare our results with other recent calculations and discuss the emerging similarities and differences. We investigate the role of electronic correlation in the representation of the two-electron continuum …
The calculation of partial two-photon ionization cross sections in the above-threshold energy region is discussed in the framework of exterior complex scaling. It is shown that with a minor modification of the usual procedure, which is based on the calculation of the outgoing partial waves of the second-order scattering wave function, reliable partial ionization amplitudes can be obtained. The modified procedure relies on a few-term least-squares fit of radial functions pertaining to different partial waves. To test the procedure, partial and total two-photon ionization cross sections of the h…
We calculate the distributions in recoil momenta and their energy distributions for the high energy non-relativistic double photoionization of helium caused by the quasifree mechanism of the process. The distributions obtain local maxima at small values of the recoil momenta. This is in agreement with the earlier predictions and with recently obtained experimental data. We obtained also the angular correlations, which reach the largest value in the "back-to-back" configuration of the photoelectrons. Our analysis is valid in all high energy nonrelativistic region. Particular equations are true …
Coherent control of interfering one- and two-photon processes has for decades been the subject of research to achieve the redirection of photocurrent. The present study develops two-pathway coherent control of ground state helium atom above-threshold photoionization for energies up to the $N=2$ threshold, based on a multichannel quantum defect and R-matrix calculation. Three parameters are controlled in our treatment: the optical interference phase $ΔΦ$, the reduced electric field strength $χ=\mathcal{E}_ω^2/{\mathcal{E}_{2ω}}$, and the final state energy $ε$. A small energy change near a reso…
