Ionization by an Oscillating Field: Resonances and Photons

TL;DR

This paper presents exact analytical results for ionization caused by an oscillating potential, revealing resonance phenomena and wave function structures, applicable to laser-induced electron emission.

Contribution

Provides new exact expressions for ionization energy distribution, capturing resonance effects beyond perturbation theory, and explores stabilization phenomena in the process.

Findings

Resonances resemble multi-photon absorption in laser ionization.

Ionization probability exhibits non-monotonic behavior with potential strength.

Wave function space-time structure is characterized.

Abstract

We describe new exact results for a model of ionization of a bound state, induced by an oscillating potential. In particular we have obtained exact expressions, in the form of readily computable rapidly convergent sums, for the energy distribution of the emitted particles as a function of time, frequency and strength of the oscillating potential. Going beyond perturbation theory, these show resonances in the energy distribution which look like single or multi-photon absorption, similar to those observed in laser induced electron emission from solids or atoms. This is particularly so when the strength of the oscillating potential is small compared to the binding energy but is still visible for large fields, and even for time-periods of a few oscillations. We have also obtained the space-time structure of the wave function. Our model exhibits a form of stabilization; the ionization probability is not monotone in the strength of the oscillating potential.