Theory of Subcycle Linear Momentum Transfer in Strong-Field Tunneling Ionization.

Hongcheng Ni,Feng He,Manfred Lein,Pei-Lun He,Xiang Gao,Xiao-Min Tong,Stefan Donsa,Simon Brennecke,Iva Březinová,Joachim Burgdörfer,Jian Wu

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.125.073202

Abstract

Interaction of a strong laser pulse with matter transfers not only energy but also linear momentum of the photons. Recent experimental advances have made it possible to detect the small amount of linear momentum delivered to the photoelectrons in strong-field ionization of atoms. We present numerical simulations as well as an analytical description of the subcycle phase (or time) resolved momentum transfer to an atom accessible by an attoclock protocol. We show that the light-field-induced momentum transfer is remarkably sensitive to properties of the ultrashort laser pulse such as its carrier-envelope phase and ellipticity. Moreover, we show that the subcycle-resolved linear momentum transfer can provide novel insights into the interplay between nonadiabatic and nondipole effects in strong-field ionization. This work paves the way towards the investigation of the so-far unexplored time-resolved nondipole nonadiabatic tunneling dynamics.

Highlights

Interaction of a strong laser pulse with matter transfers energy and linear momentum of the photons
Strong-field ionization is typically well described in the dipole approximation, in which the vector potential A of the electromagnetic field as well as the electric field F are assumed to be spatially homogeneous while the magnetic field vanishes
Nondipole effects can be enhanced by increasing the laser wavelength and/or increasing the intensity so that the motion of the liberated electron is strongly influenced by the magnetic field and radiation pressure of the laser field, resulting in linear momentum transfer along the propagation direction [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]

Summary

Introduction

Interaction of a strong laser pulse with matter transfers energy and linear momentum of the photons. Theory of Subcycle Linear Momentum Transfer in Strong-Field Tunneling Ionization We show that the subcycle-resolved linear momentum transfer can provide novel insights into the interplay between nonadiabatic and nondipole effects in strong-field ionization.

Results

Conclusion