Strong field ionization and gauge dependence of nonlocal potentials

Abstract

Nonlocal potential models have been used in place of the Coulomb potential in the Schrodinger equation as an efficient means of exploring high field laser-atom interaction in previous works. Al- though these models have found use in modeling phenomena including photo-ionization and ejected electron momentum spectra, they are known to break electromagnetic gauge invariance. This paper examines if there is a preferred gauge for the linear field response and photoionization characteristics of nonlocal atomic binding potentials in the length and velocity gauges. It is found that the length gauge is preferable for a wide range of parameters.