UC Davis

We investigate the two-photon double ionization of beryllium atom induced by ultrashort pulses. We use a time-dependent formalism to evaluate the ionization amplitudes and generalized cross sections for the ejection of the 2s2 valence shell electrons in the presence of a fully occupied 1s2 frozen core shell. The relative contributions of the two-photon direct and sequential process are systematically explored by varying both pulse duration and central frequency. The energy and angular differential ionization yields reveal the signatures of both mechanisms, as well as the role of electron correlation in both the single and double ionization continua. In contrast with previous results on the helium atom, the presence of an electronic core strongly affects the final state leading to back-to-back electron emission even in the a priori less correlated two-photon sequential mechanism. In particular, a dominant pathway via excitation ionization through the Be+(2p) determines the profiles and pulse-duration dependencies of the energy and angle differential yields.