Terrace-like structure in the above-threshold ionization spectrum of an atom in an IR+XUV two-color laser field

TL;DR

This paper uses frequency-domain theory to analyze how IR and XUV laser fields create a terrace-like structure in the ATI spectrum of an atom, revealing the distinct roles of each laser in ionization and electron acceleration.

Contribution

It introduces a channel analysis and classical formula to predict the terrace-like ATI spectrum structure in a two-color IR+XUV laser field.

Findings

XUV laser determines ionization probability via photon absorption

IR laser accelerates electrons, broadening the spectrum

Height difference between plateaus increases with XUV frequency

Abstract

Based on the frequency-domain theory, we investigate the above-threshold ionization (ATI) process of an atom in a two-color laser field with infrared (IR) and extreme ultraviolet (XUV) frequencies, where the photon energy of the XUV laser is close to or larger than the atomic ionization threshold. By using the channel analysis, we find that the two laser fields play different roles in an ionization process, where the XUV laser determines the ionization probability by the photon number that the atom absorbs from it, while the IR laser accelerates the ionized electron and hence widens the electron kinetic energy spectrum. As a result, the ATI spectrum presents a terrace-like structure. By using the saddle-point approximation, we obtain a classical formula which can predict the cutoff of each plateau in the terrace-like ATI spectrum. Furthermore, we find that the difference of the heights between two neighboring plateaus in the terrace-like structure of the ATI spectrum increases as the frequency of the XUV laser increases.