Final-state interactions in multiphoton-ionization theory

Abstract

In the final state of a multiphoton-ionization process the ejected electron may interact simultaneously with the external laser field and with the residual atomic system. A procedure for calculating transition probabilities for such processes is described which incorporates the effects of resonances in the final continuum states of the atom. By using standard methods of scattering theory, it is shown how these resonant states may be separated out leaving a amplitude which is a smooth function of the energy, and which therefore lends itself more readily to numerical evaluation. Such an evaluation may be based on the generalized Lippmann-Schwinger integral equation presented here. The constraint imposed by unitarity on the background amplitude is derived, and it is pointed out how approximations may be set up which satisfy unitarity automatically. A simplified model is described in order to illustrate this and other features of the theory and to make contact with some earlier work on this subject. Finally, a low-frequency approximation is developed in which final-state interaction effects are accounted for in a relatively simple analytical form.