Tracking quantum clouds expansion in tunneling ionization

Abstract

We study formation and evolution of the electron wave-packets in the process of strong field ionization of various atomic targets. Our study is based on reformulating the problem in terms of conditional amplitudes, i.e., the amplitudes describing outcomes of measurements of different observables provided that the electron is found in the ionized state after the end of the pulse. By choosing the electron coordinate as such an observable, we were able to define unambiguously the notion of the ionized wave-packets and to study their formation and spread. We show that the evolution of the ionized wave packets obtained in this way follows closely the classical trajectories at the initial stages of evolution providing an {\it ab initio} quantum-mechanical confirmation of the basic premises of the Classical Monte Carlo Calculations approach. At the later stages of evolution the picture becomes more complicated due to the wave packets' spread and due to interference of wave packets originating from different field maxima. Our approach also allowed us to obtain information about the coordinate and velocity electron distributions at the tunnel exit.