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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Atomic Photoionization In Intense Optical Fields

P H. Buchsbaum

Published Jul 11, 1988• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Intense light fields can induce elastic and inelastic electron scattering, as well as above-threshold ionization in atoms. This paper reviews some recent atomic photoionization experiments that demonstrate the connection between these new effects and the quantum mechanics of wiggling electrons.
DOI
10.1117/12.965119

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The photoionization of atoms in a strong electromagnetic field leads to the effect of "above-threshold" ionization, displaying a number of peaks in the energy spectrum of the photoelectrons. In the case of a one-electron model atom in a circularly polarized field, we derive expressions that describe the position as well as the intensity of those peaks as a function of the field parameters by means of a nonperturbative method. It is immediately clear from our formulas that the lowest-energy peaks in general disappear with increasing field intensity, for Coulomb-like as well as shortrange potentials. For a zero-range potential, a numerical evaluation is easily performed, leading to results that are in every respect qualitatively similar to the experimental results obtained thus far on these kinds of processes.
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