S-Matrix Theory of ionization of molecules in intense laser fields

We illustrate the application of the so-called Intense-Field Many-Body S-Matrix Theory (IMST) for molecular systems in strong laser fields. First, we investigate the phenomena of “enhanced ionization” for diatomic and polyatomic molecules. For the simple one- and two-electron molecules, H2+ and H2, the results of our calculations show the phenomena and are in good agreement with those of numerical simulations. We further predict the appearance of this phenomena for the more complex polyatomic molecule benzene (C6H6). Finally, we analyze the recently measured ionization yields of di- and polyatomic molecules in intense Ti:sapphire laser pulses as a function of the laser intensity.