We address the influence of the molecular orbital geometry and of the
molecular alignment with respect to the laser-field polarization on
laser-induced nonsequential double ionization of diatomic molecules for
different molecular species, namely N2β and Li2β. We
focus on the recollision excitation with subsequent tunneling ionization (RESI)
mechanism, in which the first electron, upon return, promotes the second
electron to an excited state, from where it subsequently tunnels. We show that
the electron-momentum distributions exhibit interference maxima and minima due
to the electron emission at spatially separated centers. We provide generalized
analytical expressions for such maxima or minima, which take into account sp mixing and the orbital geometry. The patterns caused by the two-center
interference are sharpest for vanishing alignment angle and get washed out as
this parameter increases. Apart from that, there exist features due to the
geometry of the lowest occupied molecular orbital (LUMO), which may be observed
for a wide range of alignment angles. Such features manifest themselves as the
suppression of probability density in specific momentum regions due to the
shape of the LUMO wavefunction, or as an overall decrease in the RESI yield due
to the presence of nodal planes.Comment: 11 pages revtex, 2 figure