The role of light ellipticity in ionization of atoms by intense few-cycles laser pulses

Abstract

We provide theoretical investigations of the response of the Ar and H atoms to an intense elliptically polarized few-cycle laser pulse, as a function of light ellipticity. The time-dependent Schr{\"o}dinger equation describing the least-bound electron is solved numerically, and differential quantities such as the momentum distribution, the electron density in the continuum, and the above-threshold ionization spectra are computed. These quantities provide insight into the ionization dynamics and the electron rescattering process as a function of light ellipticity, and reveal great similarities between the response of Ar and H to the applied external field.