The knowledge of the ionization of water is essential in different fields such as Biology and Atomic Physics. Basic reactions involving this molecule are crucial to understand the interaction between radiation and the biological tissue because living cells are composed mostly by water. Therefore, we study theoretically the laser-assisted photoionization of water molecules by attopulses in the streaking regime by means of a Coulomb-Volkov model. We analyze reactions initiated by an extreme ultraviolet single attosecond pulse assisted by a near-infrared laser. The initial molecular wavefunctions are described by using the Moccia’s monocentric wavefunctions whereas the final state wavefunctions are given by the separable Coulomb-Volkov type wavefunctions. We obtain analytical expressions for the observables of interest. We calculate photoelectron spectra as a function of the delay between the attopulse and the assistant laser field for water molecules. Several polarization configurations of pulses and assistant laser are considered. Particularly, we focus on the conditions where asymmetries are generated in the observables and we examine those under which these asymmetries could be enhanced and/or diminished leading to a directional selectivity of the photoelectron emission. Consequently, we hope our work promotes progress on the control of the chemical reactivity of water as this could be useful in many domains of radiobiology and medical physics. Finally, we expect these studies contribute to the improvement of attopulses and assistant laser technologies as well as to the development of new polarization and delay control experiments.
Basic reactions involving water molecules are essential to understand the interaction between radiation and the biological tissue because living cells are composed mostly by water. Therefore, the knowledge of ionization of the latter is crucial in many domains of Biology and Physics. So, we study theoretically the photoionization of water molecules by extreme ultraviolet attopulse trains assisted by lasers in the near-infrared range. We use a separable Coulomb-Volkov model in which the temporal evolution of the system can be divided into three stages allowing spatial and temporal separation for the Coulomb and Volkov final state wavefunctions. First, we analyze photoelectron angular distributions for different delays between the attopulse train and the assistant laser field. We compare our results for water and Ne atoms as they belong to the same isoelectronic series. Moreover, we contrast our calculations with previous theoretical and experimental work for Ar atoms due to the similarities of the orbitals involved in the reaction. Second, we study the effect of varying the relative orientations of the attopulse and laser field polarizations and we compare our predictions with other theories and experiments. We expect these studies contribute to the improvement of polarization experiments and the development of the attopulse trains and assistant laser fields technologies. Finally, we hope our work promote progress on the control of the chemical reactivity of water molecules since this could be useful in different fields such as radiobiology and medical physics.
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