Photodetachment of Si− by mid-infrared few-cycle femtosecond laser pulses

Abstract

The Kelydsh model originally developed for infinitely long periodic laser pulses is extended to a spin polarized model to consider direct photodetachment of negative ions with half-filled np3 valence shells by few-cycle laser pulses without taking into account rescattering effects. The theory is applied to study above threshold detachment of Si− negative ions by intense short infrared pulses but is expected to be inherent of any half-filled p subshell negative ion. Photoelectron momentum maps of the direct electrons of Si− are presented. These are found to exhibit a distinctive threshold structure of concentric elliptical rings where the separation of these rings is dependent on the quantized frequency components of the few-cycle laser pulse. Photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) predicted by short duration laser pulses are calculated and threshold effects associated with channel closings are observed as the laser-field frequency and intensity pass through critically induced ponderomotive potential channel closures. Enhanced structures of the PADs in the vicinity near threshold show that the detachment process does not follow the Wigner law. This is a because the photon energy is not conserved in a few-cycle pulse in contrast to a long periodic pulse. In the energy spectra interference effects are observable as multiphoton peaked structures whose positions are dependent on the ponderomotive threshold shifts determined by the nature of the time-dependent vector potential. Additionally we show that carrier envelope phase effects manipulate all emission spectra considered.