All-Electron, Density Functional-Based Method for Angle-Resolved Tunneling Ionization in the Adiabatic Regime

Abstract

We develop and test a method that integrates many-electron weak-field asymptotic theory (ME-WFAT) [Phys. Rev. A 89, 013421 (2014)] in the integral representation (IR) into the density functional theory (DFT) framework. In particular, we present modifications of the integral formula in the IR ME-WFAT to incorporate the potential terms unique to DFT. By solving an adiabatic rate equation for the angle-resolved ionization yield in our DFT-based ME-WFAT method, we show that the results are in excellent agreement with those of real-time time-dependent density functional theory (RT-TDDFT) simulations for NO, OCS, CH${}_3$Br, and CH${}_3$Cl interacting with one- and two- color laser fields with a fundamental wavelength of $800$ nm. This agreement is significant because the WFAT calculations take only a small fraction of the time of full TDDFT calculations. These results suggest that in the wavelength region commonly used in strong-field experiments ($800$ nm and longer), our DFT-based WFAT treatment can be used to rapidly screen for the ionization properties of a large number of molecules as a function of alignment or orientation between the molecule and the strong field.

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