Correlated electron emission in multiphoton double ionization

Electronic correlations govern the dynamics of many phenomena in nature, such as chemical reactions and solid state effects, including superconductivity. Such correlation effects can be most clearly investigated in processes involving single atoms. In particular, the emission of two electrons from an atom—induced by the impact of a single photon1, a charged particle2 or by a short laser pulse3—has become the standard process for studies of dynamical electron correlations. Atoms and molecules exposed to laser fields that are comparable in intensity to the nuclear fields have extremely high probabilities for double ionization4,5; this has been attributed to electron–electron interaction3. Here we report a strong correlation between the magnitude and the direction of the momentum of two electrons that are emitted from an argon atom, driven by a femtosecond laser pulse (at 38 TW cm-2). Increasing the laser intensity causes the momentum correlation between the electrons to be lost, implying that a transition in the laser–atom coupling mechanism takes place.