Study of attosecond delays using perturbation diagrams and exterior complex scaling

Abstract

We describe in detail how attosecond delays in laser-assisted photoionization can be computed using perturbation theory based on two-photon matrix elements. Special emphasis is laid on above-threshold ionization, where the electron interacts with an infrared field after photoionization by an extreme ultraviolet field. Correlation effects are introduced using diagrammatic many-body theory to the level of the random-phase approximation with exchange. Our aim is to provide an ab initio route to correlated multi-photon processes that are required for an accurate description of experiments on the attosecond time scale. Here, our results are focused on photoionization of the M-shell of argon atoms, where experiments have been carried out using the so-called reconstruction of attosecond beating by the two-photon interference transitions technique. An influence of autoionizing resonances in attosecond delay measurements is observed. Further, it is shown that the delay depends on both detection angle of the photoelectron and energy of the probe photon.