Abstract

We study the photoelectron momentum distribution from strong-field ionization of atomic ${p_ \pm}$ orbitals in an orthogonally polarized two-color (OTC) laser field. We find that the atomic ${p_ \pm}$ orbitals are deformed in the OTC field, which significantly varies the left–right asymmetries of the electron yield in the photoelectron momentum distribution. By developing a strong-field approximation model that includes the orbital deformation effect, we show that the orbital deformation has a significant effect on the instantaneous ionization rate, while it plays a negligible role in the subcycle electron interference. By taking the spin-orbit coupling into account, we further show that the orbital deformation effect can be used to produce angular-resolved spin-polarized photoelectrons. Our study paves the way for producing spatially separated high degree spin-polarized electrons.

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