Electron spectra from strong-field enhanced ionization in heavy water

Strong-field enhanced ionization (EI) is a phenomenon in which stretching of interatomic bonds into a distorted molecular geometry leads to an increase in the tunneling ionization rate driven by a strong field. While the nuclear dynamics leading to EI are well established, the electron dynamics of the ionization step remain largely unexplored. Isolating the momentum distribution of the electrons involved in EI is critical to fully characterizing the phenomenon. We have measured the electron momentum distribution associated with EI in triple ionization of D$_2$O using 6-fs pulse pairs together with full fragment momentum imaging and electron-ion correlation methods. We find that the EI electron momentum distribution differs substantially from that of standard strong-field tunneling from molecules, exhibiting an increased yield of electrons with large momentum in the direction of the laser polarization, and a change from the expected Gaussian distribution. These observations indicate that the instantaneous EI tunneling rate is maximized at a critical value of the laser electric field, rather than at the peak of an optical cycle. This finding distinguishes EI from Keldysh tunneling rate predictions, where tunneling rate increases monotonically with field strength. These pronounced differences between EI and non-EI electron spectra are critical tests of models of enhanced ionization and suggest a route towards control of the sub-cycle timing of electron emission.