Molecular-Frame 3D Photoelectron Momentum Distributions by Tomographic Reconstruction

Naphthalene molecules are fixed in space by a laser field and rotated, in 2 degrees steps, over 180 degrees. For each orientation, they are ionized by an intense, circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulse, and the 2D projection of the photoelectron momentum distribution is recorded. The molecular-frame 3D momentum distribution is obtained by tomographic reconstruction from all 90 projections. It reveals an anisotropic electron distribution, angularly shifted in the polarization plane, that is not accessible by the 2D momentum images. Our theoretical analysis shows that the magnitude of the angular shift is very sensitive to the exact form of the laser-modified molecular potential.