Non-dipole recollision-gated double ionization and observable effects

Abstract

Using a three-dimensional semiclassical model, we study double ionization for strongly driven He fully accounting for magnetic field effects during the propagation in time. For linearly and slightly elliptically polarized laser fields, we show that recollisions and the magnetic field combined act as a gate. This gate favors more transverse—with respect to the electric field—initial momenta of the tunneling electron that are opposite to the propagation direction of the laser field. In the absence of non-dipole effects, the transverse initial momentum is symmetric with respect to zero. We find that this asymmetry in the transverse initial momentum gives rise to an asymmetry in a double ionization observable.