Studying the electronic structure of molecules with high harmonic spectroscopy

High harmonic spectroscopy is a tool to study the valence electronic structure of atoms and molecules. It uses the techniques of high harmonic generation, in which a femtosecond laser ionizes the gas sample and XUV radiation is emitted in the forward direction. The XUV intensity, phase and polarization contain information about the orbital from which an electron was removed by the laser. High harmonic spectroscopy reveals details of electron-electron interactions, motion of electronic wave packets, and can follow a chemical reaction. \ua9 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye