Attosecond timescale analysis of the dynamics of two-photon double ionization of helium

Abstract

We consider the two-photon double ionization (DI) of helium and analyze electron dynamics on the attosecond timescale. We first re-examine the interaction of helium with an ultrashort XUV pulse and study how the electronic correlations affect the electron angular and energy distributions in the direct, sequential and transient regimes of frequency and time duration. We then consider pump-probe processes with the aim of extracting indirect information on the pump pulse. In addition, our calculations show clear evidence for the existence under certain conditions of direct two-color DI processes.