Radiation pressure in SFA theory: retardation and recoil corrections

TL;DR

This paper investigates radiation pressure effects in laser-induced ionization using strong-field approximation, comparing nonrelativistic, relativistic, and quasi-relativistic models, and highlights the significance of recoil corrections at high intensities.

Contribution

It introduces a quasi-relativistic formulation incorporating retardation and recoil corrections into the nonrelativistic approach for better accuracy.

Findings

Recoil corrections mainly influence radiation pressure effects.

Quasi-relativistic predictions align well with full relativistic results up to $10^{16}\mathrm{W/cm}^2$.

Different approaches are analyzed for energy-angular distributions of photoelectrons.

Abstract

Radiation pressure effects in ionization by short linearly-polarized laser pulses are investigated in the framework of strong-field approximation, in both nonrelativistic and relativistic formulations. Differences between both approaches are discussed, and retardation and recoil corrections are defined. It is demonstrated how these corrections can be incorporated into the nonrelativistic approach, leading to the so-called quasi-relativistic formulation. These three approaches are further applied to the analysis of signatures of radiation pressure in energy-angular distributions of photoelectrons. It is demonstrated that, for Ti:Sapphire laser pulses of intensities up to $10^{16}\mathrm{W/cm}^2$, predictions of the quasi-relativistic formulation agree well with those of the full relativistic one, and that the recoil corrections contribute predominantly to the radiation pressure effects.