Theoretical study of spin polarization in multiphoton ionization of Xe

Abstract

Spin polarization in the multiphoton above-threshold ionization of 5p3/2- and 5p1/2-electrons of Xe with intense 395nm, circularly polarized laser pulses, is investigated theoretically. For this purpose, we solve the time-dependent Schrödinger equation on the basis of spherical spinors. We, thus, simultaneously propagate the spin-up and spin-down single-active-electron wave packets, driven by the laser pulses in the ionic potential, which includes the spin-orbit interaction explicitly. The present theoretical results are in good agreement with the recent experimental results [D. Trabert et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 043202 (2018)].