Laser-assisted photoionization beyond the dipole approximation

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of atomic laser-assisted photoionization emission beyond the dipole approximation. By considering the nonrelativistic nondipole strong-field approximation (nondipole Gordon-Volkov wave function), we analyze the different contributions to the photoelectron spectrum, which can be written in terms of intra- and intercycle factors. We find that our nondipole approach not only exhibits asymmetric emission in the direction of light propagation, but also allows emission in dipole-forbidden directions. The former feature can be rooted in both intra- and intercycle interference processes, while the latter stems from a dependence of the sideband energy on the emission angle with respect to the propagation direction. Our theoretical scheme, presented here for He atoms in the 1s quantum state, is general enough to be applied to other atomic species and field configurations.