Abstract
Intense laser ionization expands Einstein's photoelectric effect rules giving a wealth of phenomena widely studied over the last decades. In all cases, so far, photons were assumed to carry one unit of angular momentum. However it is now clear that photons can possess extra angular momentum, the orbital angular momentum (OAM), related to their spatial profile. We show a complete description of photoionization by OAM photons, including new selection rules involving more than one unit of angular momentum. We explore theoretically the interaction of a single electron atom located at the center of an intense ultraviolet beam bearing OAM, envisaging new scenarios for quantum optics.
Highlights
During the history of Physics, Light-Matter interaction has been the fundamental path towards understanding new phenomena and testing some essential theories, as in the case of photoionization
We show a complete description of photoionization by orbital angular momentum (OAM) photons, including new selection rules involving more than one unit of angular momentum
As recognized by Allen and coworkers [1], light possess another degree of freedom: the orbital angular momentum (OAM), which rather than being associated with polarization, it is related to the spatial profile of light
Summary
We begin by considering a pulse beam propagating along the z-direction with a temporal envelope wave parameterized by a quadratic sinus (see Fig. 1). We first extract a new set of selection rules for the interaction of atoms with OAM beams and point out the essential differences with pulse beams consisting of plane waves. Taking into account the vector potential given by (1), and within the dipolar (λ ao) and the transverse spatial (w0 λ) approximations, we derive the following set of selection rules for beams carrying any arbitrary units of OAM (see the Appendix):. The second contribution for the interaction Hamiltonian HII yields, in the case of plane waves, a constant term, producing a ponderomotive force [22]. We should remark that the domain of applicability of selection rules (4) and (5) extends beyond the photoionization problem
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