Molecular photoelectron angular distributions with intense attosecond circularly polarized UV laser pulses

We investigate effects of intermediate resonant electronic states on molecular photoelectron angular distributions (MPADs) by intense circularly polarized attosecond UV laser pulses. Simulations are performed on aligned H-2(+) by numerically solving the corresponding three dimensional time dependent Schrodinger equations. MPADs exhibit signature of rotations, which is shown to be critically sensitive to the symmetry of the intermediate resonant electronic state and the pulse intensity. This sensitivity is attributed to the coherent population transfer in the initial and intermediate resonant states, thus suggesting a method to control molecular photoionization on attosecond time scale. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.