Tunneling ionization of neon atoms carrying different orbital angular momenta in strong laser fields

Abstract

The photoionization of model neon atoms carrying different angular momenta in strong laser fields is studied using several different theoretical methods, such as the time-dependent Schr\odinger simulation, classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulation, quantum trajectory Monte Carlo simulation, and backward propagation. The tunneling exit, time-dependent tunneling rate, and photoelectron momentum distribution at tunneling are explored by cross comparing the photoelectron momentum distributions calculated with these methods. When the electron and laser field counter rotate, the tunneling exit is more close to the nucleus, resulting in a larger tunneling ionization rate. Different transverse momenta at tunneling exits induce different ultimate photoelectron momentum distributions.