Photoelectron momentum distributions in the strong-field ionization of atomic hydrogen by few-cycle elliptically polarized optical pulses

TL;DR

This study uses numerical solutions of the Schrödinger equation to analyze how various pulse parameters influence photoelectron momentum distributions in hydrogen ionization, revealing insights into electron release timing and Coulomb effects.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of how pulse characteristics affect electron momentum distributions and introduces a method to access electron release times using low-ellipticity pulses.

Findings

Electron offset angle varies with asymptotic energy due to combined field and Coulomb effects.

Low-ellipticity pulses enable probing of electron release times.

Dependence of momentum distribution on pulse parameters is systematically characterized.

Abstract

We investigate the strong-field ionization of atomic hydrogen in a few-cycle elliptically polarized infrared pulse by solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation. The dependence of the photoelectron momentum distribution on the pulse intensity, ellipticity, length, envelope, and carrier envelope phase is analyzed. In particular, we explain the variation of the electron offset angle with asymptotic electron energy through the combined action of the field and the Coulomb potential, and demonstrate that low-ellipticity pulses make it possible to access the electron release time.