Chapter 10 Studying the Electronic Structure of Molecules with High Harmonic Spectroscopy

Abstract High harmonic spectroscopy is a tool to study the valence electronic structure of atoms and molecules. It uses the techniques of high harmonic gener-ation, in which a femtosecond laser ionizes the gas sample and XUV radiation is emitted in the forward direction. The XUV intensity, phase and polarization con-tain information about the orbital from which an electron was removed by the laser. High harmonic spectroscopy reveals details of electron-electron interactions, mo-tion of electronic wave packets, and can follow a chemical reaction