Ellipticity controlled dissociative double ionization of ethane by strong fields

The yields of all dissociation channels of ethane dications produced by strong field double ionization were measured. It was found that the branching ratios can be controlled by varying the ellipticity of laser pulses. The CH3+ formation and H+ formation channels show a clear competition, producing the highest and lowest branching ratios at ellipticity of ∼0.6, respectively. With the help of theoretical calculations, such a control was attributed to the ellipticity dependent yields of different sequential ionization pathways.