Ionization induced by the ponderomotive force in intense and high-frequency laser fields

Mingyu Zhu; Yuxiang Liu; Chunli Wei; Hongcheng Ni; Qi Wei

doi:10.1063/5.0144147

Ionization induced by the ponderomotive force in intense and high-frequency laser fields

J Chem Phys. 2023 Apr 28;158(16):164306. doi: 10.1063/5.0144147.

Authors

Mingyu Zhu^{1

2}, Yuxiang Liu², Chunli Wei², Hongcheng Ni^{1

3

4}, Qi Wei¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China.
² School of Physics and Electronic Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China.
³ Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030006, China.
⁴ NYU-ECNU Joint Institute of Physics, New York University at Shanghai, Shanghai 200062, China.

PMID: 37096850
DOI: 10.1063/5.0144147

Abstract

Atomic stabilization is a universal phenomenon that occurs when atoms interact with intense and high-frequency laser fields. In this work, we systematically study the influence of the ponderomotive (PM) force, present around the laser focus, on atomic stabilization. We show that the PM force could induce tunneling and even over-barrier ionization to the otherwise stabilized atoms. Such effect may overweigh the typical multiphoton ionization under moderate laser intensities. Our work highlights the importance of an improved treatment of atomic stabilization that includes the influence of the PM force.