Coulomb focusing in retrapped ionization with near-circularly polarized laser field

TL;DR

This study investigates how Coulomb focusing affects electron trajectories during ionization in near-circularly polarized laser fields, revealing unexpected narrowing of electron momentum distributions due to temporary trapping by the atomic potential.

Contribution

It demonstrates Coulomb focusing effects in near-circular polarization, highlighting the role of quasibound states in electron trapping and momentum distribution narrowing.

Findings

Transverse momentum distribution narrows with increasing laser intensity.

Coulomb focusing occurs due to temporary trapping in quasibound states.

Avoidance of rescattering enhances Coulomb focusing effects.

Abstract

The full three-dimensional photoelectron momentum distributions of argon are measured in intense near-circularly polarized laser fields. We observed that the transverse momentum distribution of ejected electrons by 410-nm near-circularly polarized field is unexpectedly narrowed with increasing laser intensity, which is contrary to the conventional rules predicted by adiabatic theory. By analyzing the momentum-resolved angular momentum distribution measured experimentally and the corresponding trajectories of ejected electrons semiclassically, the narrowing can be attributed to a temporary trapping and thereby focusing of a photoelectron by the atomic potential in a quasibound state. With the near-circularly polarized laser field, the strong Coulomb interaction with the rescattering electrons is avoided, thus the Coulomb focusing in the retrapped process is highlighted. We believe that these findings will facilitate understanding and steering electron dynamics in the Coulomb coupled system.