Multiphoton Ionization of Atoms and Molecules

Ionization of diatomic molecules should be described by the same basic theories as atomic ionization. For example, one might expect many common elements in a theory describing multiphoton ionization of HCl and of Argon. We will show that, for the first ionization step, atomic models require little or no modification to accurately describe molecular ionization, but we will also show that the large Stark shifts and large polarizability of molecular ions forces us to modify atomic models for higher charge states.