Manipulating frustrated double ionization by orthogonal two-color laser pulses

Abstract Using a three-dimensional classical ensemble method, we theoretically investigated frustrated double ionization (FDI) of atoms driven by the orthogonal two-color (OTC) laser pulses. The numerical results show that the FDI yields could be controlled by changing the relative phase of the OTC fields. Moreover, the relative contribution of the two pathways of FDI, corresponding to the processes wherein the firstly or the secondly ionized electron is finally recaptured when the laser field is over, could also be manipulated by changing the relative phase of the OTC fields. The underlying dynamics for this relative-phase dependence of the FDI pathways is revealed by back-tracing the classical trajectories of the FDI events. Interestingly, the energy distributions of the highly excited states of the atom ions in the FDI events also display a sensitive relative phase dependence.