Abstract

A nonperturbative theory of multiphoton ionization was given in 1980¹ by the present author, which predicted the subseguently observed phenomena of above-threshold ionization (ATI), suppression of lower-order peaks in the spectrum of ionized electrons, and major gualitative differences in the spectra of electrons ionized by circularly polarized light as compared to linearly polarized light. The theory uses a short-range binding potential with a single bound state, much like the later independent work of Muller, Tip, and van der Wiel.² The 1980 theory is here applied to the case of photoionization of xenon by circularly polarized light of 1064 nm, for which experiments have recently been carried out.^3-5

© 1986 Optical Society of America