Self-Probing Spectroscopy of the SF6 Molecule: A Study of the Spectral Amplitude and Phase of the High Harmonic Emission

We present characterizations of the attosecond pulse train produced in the high harmonic generation (HHG) from SF6 molecules irradiated by a strong pulsed laser field at 800 nm. At harmonic order 17, we observe a minimum in the amplitude of the emitted spectrum and a corresponding distortion in the phase. Our experimental results are compared to two models: a multicenter interference model focused on the effect of the structure of the SF6 molecule in HHG and a model focused on the interferences between multiple ionization channels in HHG. We find that the experimental results agree very well with the multiple ionization channels model, illustrating that HHG in molecules can be very complex and that it provides insights of the intramolecular electron dynamics during the interaction process.