We report on an experimental and theoretical study of the ionization-fragmentation dynamics of argon dimers in intense few-cycle laser pulses with a tagged carrier-envelope phase. We find that a field-driven electron transfer process from one argon atom across the system boundary to the other argon atom triggers sub-cycle electron-electron interaction dynamics in the neighboring atom. This attosecond electron-transfer process between distant entities and its implications manifest themselves as a distinct phase-shift between the measured asymmetry of electron emission curves of the $\text{ Ar}^{ +}+\text{ Ar}^{ 2+}$ and $\text{ Ar}^{ 2+}+\text{ Ar}^{ 2+}$ fragmentation channels. Our work discloses a strong-field route to controlling the dynamics in molecular compounds through the excitation of electronic dynamics on a distant molecule by driving inter-molecular electron-transfer processes.
Categories: physics.atm-clus