Study of the induced potential produced by ultrashort pulses on metal surfaces

TL;DR

This paper investigates how ultrashort laser pulses induce potentials on metal surfaces and affect photoelectron emission, introducing a new theoretical method that accurately models these effects and matches numerical solutions.

Contribution

The paper presents the Surface Jellium Volkov approach, a novel distorted wave method that includes induced potential effects in photoelectron emission from metal surfaces.

Findings

The SJV method accurately reproduces emission spectra features.

Induced potentials significantly influence photoelectron emission.

The approach aligns well with time-dependent Schrödinger equation results.

Abstract

The influence of the induced potential on photoelectron emission from metal surfaces is studied for grazing incidence of ultrashort laser pulses. To describe this process we introduce a distorted wave method, the Surface Jellium Volkov approach, which includes the perturbation on the emitted electron produced by both the laser and the induced fields. The method is applied to an Al(111) surfaces, contrasting the results with the numerical solutions to the time-dependent Schrodinger equation (TDSE). We found that SJV approach reproduces well the main features of emission spectra, accounting properly for effects originated by the induced potential.