Carrier Envelope Phase's Role in Tilted N₂ Strong Field Ionization

Recently, it has been shown that electrons from a neutral diatomic molecule ionized by a low-frequency, few-cycle, linearly polarized laser pulse are roughly twice as likely be ionized from the downfield than the upfield atom when the molecule is tilted with respect to the laser polarization [PRL 127 213201 (2021)]. However, the analysis used to draw this conclusion assumed the pulse’s carrier envelope phase (CEP) to be zero. Given experimentalists' limited control over CEP and its dramatic effect on electron momenta after ionization, it is desirable to see what effect CEP plays in determining the ionization site. In this poster, we employ Quantum Trajectory Monte Carlo (QTMC) techniques to simulate strong-field ionization and electron propagation from neutral N₂ using an intense 6-cycle laser pulse with various CEP values. Comparing simulated electron momentum distributions to experimental data, the ratio of down-to-upfield ions remains roughly 2:1 regardless of CEP, bolstering previous conclusions.