Inclusion of Coulomb effects in laser-atom interactions

Abstract

We investigate the role of the Coulomb interaction in strong field processes. We find that the Coulomb field of the ion makes its presence known even in highly intense laser fields, in contrast to the assumptions of the strong field approximation. The dynamics of the electron after ionization is analyzed with four models for an arbitrary laser polarization: the Hamiltonian model in the dipole approximation, the strong field approximation, the Coulomb-corrected strong field approximation and the guiding center. These models illustrate clearly the Coulomb effects, in particular Coulomb focusing and Coulomb asymmetry. We show that the Coulomb-corrected strong field approximation and the guiding center are complementary, in the sense that the Coulomb-corrected strong field approximation describes well short time scale phenomena (shorter than a laser cycle) while the guiding center is well suited for describing long time scale phenomena (longer than a laser cycle) like Coulomb-driven recollisions and Rydberg state creation.

References in corpus (9)

• Strong Field Approximation for Systems with Coulomb Interaction
• Strong Field Ionization Rate for Arbitrary Laser Frequencies
• Electron-energy bunching in laser-driven soft recollisions
• Classical collisional trajectories as the source of strong-field double ionization of helium in the knee regime
• Tunneling dynamics in multiphoton ionization and attoclock calibration
• Recollision scenario without tunneling : Role of the ionic core potential
• Capturing photoelectron motion with guiding fictitious particles
• Can one turn off Coulomb focusing?
• Guiding-center motion for electrons in strong laser fields

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Strong-field photoionization by circularly polarized light
• A semi-classical approach for solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation in spatially inhomogeneous electromagnetic pulses
• Triggering recollisions with XUV pulses: Imprint of recolliding periodic orbits