Theory of infrared-dressed atomic photoionization by extremely ultraviolet attosecond pulse trains

Abstract

We theoretically study the infrared (IR)-dressed photoionization of atoms excited by extreme ultraviolet attosecond pulse trains above ionization threshold. The initial state of atoms is treated perturbatively by the IR field, and the continuum states are considered as Coulomb-Volkov (CV) waves. CV waves can much reduce the gauge difference calculated with Volkov waves, and, in general, the contribution of ground-state perturbation to the photoelectron spectrum is negligible. Our calculations show qualitative agreement with the experimental results [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 013001 (2005)]. An evident dependence of the photoelectron spectrum on the delay phase between the IR field and the attosecond pulse train is exhibited in both helium and argon. The angular distribution of photoelectrons with various IR polarizations and the corresponding photoelectron spectra are presented. The linearly polarized IR fields are shown to have a higher controlling capability of the spectrum via IR delay phases than the circularly polarized fields. On the other hand, the circularly polarized IR fields have a fruitful angular dependence of photoelectrons with various IR delay phases. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America