Correlated electron and nuclear dynamics in strong field photoionization of H(2)(+).

We present a theoretical study of H(2)(+) ionization under strong IR femtosecond pulses by using a method designed to extract correlated (2D) photoelectron and proton kinetic energy spectra. The results show two distinct ionization mechanisms-tunnel and multiphoton ionization-in which electrons and nuclei do not share the energy from the field in the same way. Electrons produced in multiphoton ionization share part of their energy with the nuclei, an effect that shows up in the 2D spectra in the form of energy-conservation fringes similar to those observed in weak-field ionization of diatomic molecules. In contrast, tunneling electrons lead to fringes whose position does not depend on the proton kinetic energy. At high intensity, the two processes coexist and the 2D plots show a very rich behavior, suggesting that the correlation between electron and nuclear dynamics in strong field ionization is more complex than one would have anticipated.