Effect of orbital symmetry on high-order harmonic generation from molecules

It was found experimentally with increasing the laser ellipticity that the intensity of the 45th order harmonic from O-2 decreases slower than that from N-2. The difference is attributed to the fact that the recombination probability is suppressed for O-2 but enhanced for N-2 in a linearly polarized field. Simulation results obtained by extending the Lewenstein model to molecules agreed qualitatively with the experimental discoveries.