Ionization of H²₊ molecular ions by twisted Bessel light

Interference effect in the photoelectron spectra, similar to what was observed in Young's double slit experiment with light, occurs also in photoionization of diatomic molecules. This effect can be understood in terms of the phase shift of the electrons, if they are emitted from different atomic centers of the molecule. Up to the present, the molecular Young-type experiment was performed for the incident plane-wave light. Very little is known about ionization of molecules by beams of twisted (or vortex) light which have an inhomogeneous intensity profile, if taken in the plane perpendicular to the propagation direction of the beam. In this contribution, we have investigated the photoionization of hydrogen molecular ions H²₊ for twisted Bessel light beams. The differential photoionization cross sections are evaluated for a macroscopic target of randomly distributed but aligned molecules by using the nonrelativistic first-order perturbation theory. It is shown that the modifications in the angular distributions of the photoelectrons can be understood from the variations in the intensity pattern of the Beesel beam, relative to the size of the H²₊ molecule.