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The ionization and fragmentation dynamics of acetylene and the hydrogen molecule driven by strong short circularly polarized laser pulses are investigated within the framework of the time-dependent density-functional theory coupled with the Ehrenfest dynamics. The effects of alignment are considered and the dynamics is compared to that driven by linearly polarized pulses. It is found that the coupled ion-electron dynamics of both molecules driven by circularly polarized pulses follows the enhanced ionization mechanism, as was found in previous theoretical studies with linearly polarized pulses. A moderate localization asymmetry in the ionization dynamics of the hydrogen molecule was also found, in qualitative agreement with previous experimental investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The alignment-dependent ionization of acetylene and ethylene in short laser pulses is investigated in the framework of the time-dependent density-functional theory coupled with Ehrenfest dynamics. The molecular alignment is found to have a substantial effect on the total ionization. Bond stretching is shown to cause an increase of the ionization efficiency, i.e., enhanced ionization, in qualitative agreement with previous theoretical investigations. It is also demonstrated that the enhanced ionization mechanism greatly enhances the ionization from the inner valence orbitals, and the ionization of the inner orbitals is primarily due to their extended weakly bound density tails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]