Interrogation of orbital structure by elliptically polarized intense femtosecond laser pulses

Abstract

We solve the three-dimensional time-dependent Schr\odinger equation and present investigations of the imprint of the orbital angular node in photoelectron momentum distributions of an aligned atomic $p$-type orbital following ionization by an intense elliptically polarized laser pulse of femtosecond duration. We investigate the role of light ellipticity and the alignment angle of the major polarization axis of the external field relative to the probed orbital by studying radial and angular momentum distributions, the latter at a fixed narrow interval of final momenta close to the peak of the photoelectron momentum distribution. In general only the angular distributions carry a clear signature of the orbital symmetry. Our study shows that circular polarization gives the most clear imprints of orbital nodes. These findings are insensitive to pulse duration.