Abstract

We present results of strong field calculations of ATI in xenon and krypton by elliptically polarized laser pulses, showing how the spectra and angular distributions depend on polarization, pulse width, intensity, and wavelength. We compare these results to experiments and find that most observations are adequately explained by a simple model in which weakly bound electrons evolve in the presence of a time-varying classical potential. The induced wiggling of the electron wave function results in wave-mechanical interference, producing sharp minima in angular distributions that have been observed. Direct comparisons between theory and observations in above-threshold ionization experiments have been hampered in the past by the large spatial and temporal inhomogeneity of tightly focused pulsed laser beams. We have attempted to overcome these difficulties through direct numerical simulations of the experiments. These simulations allow us to perform quantitative tests of ATI theories despite the presence of ponderomotive scattering of the final state electrons.

© 1987 Optical Society of America