Strong-field ionization of complex molecules

Strong-field photoelectron momentum imaging of the prototypical biomolecule indole was disentangled in a combined experimental and computational approach. Experimentally, strong control over molecules enabled acquisition distributions molecular frame for well-defined, narrow range incident intensities. A novel, highly efficient semiclassical simulation setup based on adiabatic tunneling theory quantitatively reproduced these results. Jointly, experiment computations revealed holographic structures asymptotic distributions, which were found to sensitively depend alignment frame. We identified essential properties that shape wavepacket first step ionization process employ quantum-chemically exact description cation during subsequent continuum dynamics. The detailed modeling ion, accounts its polarization by laser-electric field, enables laser-induced electron diffraction off large complex provides full insight into photoelectron's dynamics terms trajectories. This means unravel strong-field diffractive biomolecular systems femtosecond time scales.