Photoionization of aligned and fixed nuclei three-dimensional H${}_2{}^{+}$ and two-dimensional H${}_2$ by intense circularly polarized attosecond extreme ultraviolet laser pulses is investigated from numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. Molecular above-threshold-ionization angular distributions are found to be rotated with respect to the two laser perpendicular polarizations or, equivalently the symmetry axes of the molecule. The angle of rotation is critically sensitive to laser wavelength $\lambda$, photoelectron energy $E_{\text{en}}$, and molecular internuclear distance $R$. The correlated interaction of the two electrons in H${}_2$ is shown to also influence such angular distribution rotations in different electronic states.

• Received 10 February 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.85.053419