Scientists of the MBI (IV Hertel, I. Shchatsinin, T. Laarmann, N. Zhavoronkov, H.-H. Ritze, and CP Schulz) have now shown that with elliptically polarized, ultra-short light pulses, a very clear insight into the dynamics of Ionization processes in intense laser fields can win. So you could prove on the football molecule C60 (Buckminsterfullerene) that for the replacement of one or more electrons from the molecule, a so-called "Tor state" is first excited. As a result, the molecule is so severely deformed by the laser field that many more electrons participate in this process, and some of them eventually leave the molecule - on a time scale of a few femtoseconds.
The work recently published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters (Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 023003 (2009)) has also been included in the Virtual Journals on "Ultrafast Science" and "Nanoscale Science & Technology".
Ionization dynamics in the light of elliptically polarized femtosecond laser pulses
Fig. 1 Normalized ion yield (enlarged scale) as a function of β for C+60-2m