Theoretical study of ionization of an alkali atom adsorbed on a metal surface by laser assisted subfemtosecond pulse

TL;DR

This paper presents the first numerical simulation of alkali atom ionization on a metal surface by a subfemtosecond pulse, analyzing surface effects on ionization dynamics through a streaking scheme.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical approach to simulate ionization of adsorbed atoms by subfemtosecond pulses, including surface influence, which was not previously studied.

Findings

Surface affects the differential double cross section (DDCS).

High experimental resolution is needed to observe surface influence.

Surface causes a polarization shift of the initial state energy.

Abstract

The first numerical simulation of the process of ionization of an atom adsorbed on a metal surface by the subfemtosecond pulse is presented. The streaking scheme is considered, when a weak sub-femtosecond pulse comes together with a strong IR pulse with a variable delay between them. The problem is analyzed with numerical solving the non-stationary Schroedinger equation in the cylindrical coordinate. The results obtained are compared with ones in the gas phase. We show that the surface influences the DDCS, but the observation of this influence, beside the trivial polarization shift of the energy of the initial state, requires a quite high experimental resolution.