X-ray absorption of N2 accompanied by infrared-induced transitions between the ungerade and gerade core levels

We study a two-colour pump–probe scheme of x-ray absorption accompanied by core-hole hopping in the field of a strong IR laser. The process is exemplified for fixed-in-space and randomly oriented homonuclear diatomic molecules N2 near the 1σu → 1πg x-ray absorption transition. The laser field mixes the core holes of opposite parities and causes Rabi splitting of the core-excited states. The IR field results in spectral broadening and shifts of the x-ray resonances as well as decrease of x-ray photoabsorption. The Stark broadening of the x-ray absorption spectrum depends on the orientation of the molecule and the angle between the polarization vectors of the x-ray and IR fields. The spectral changes caused by the IR field are weaker for randomly oriented molecules in comparison with fixed-in-space molecules.