Above-threshold ionization and photoelectron spectra in atomic systems driven by strong laser fields

Abstract

Above-threshold ionization (ATI) results from strong-field laser-matter interaction and it is one of the fundamental processes that may be used to extract electron structural and dynamical information about the atomic or molecular target. Moreover, it can also be used to characterize the laser field itself. Here we develop an analytical description of ATI, which extends the theoretical strong-field approximation (SFA), for both the direct and rescattering transition amplitudes in atoms. From a nonlocal, but separable potential, the bound-free dipole and the rescattering transition matrix elements are analytically computed. In comparison with the standard approaches to the ATI process, our analytical derivation of the rescattering matrix elements allows us to study directly how the rescattering process depends on the atomic target and laser-pulse features; we can turn on and off contributions having different physical origins or corresponding to different physical mechanisms. We compare SFA results with the full numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation (TDSE) within the few-cycle pulse regime. Good agreement between our SFA and TDSE model is found for the ATI spectrum. Our model captures also the strong dependence of the photoelectron spectra on the carrier envelope phase of the laser field.