Dressed-state strong-field approximation for laser-induced molecular ionization

Abstract

In the customary formulation of the strong-field approximation (SFA) for laser-induced ionization, the initial bound state is taken as field-free. In the formulation of a length-gauge SFA for ionization of a molecule described by a two-center binding potential with sufficiently large internuclear separation, we argue that the initial state has to be dressed in order to account for the different scalar potentials at the various centers. We propose a ``dressed-state'' SFA to this end.