Abstract

The theoretical description of multiphoton ionization of atoms by high power, short pulse lasers ultimately rests on the ability to integrate the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. Currently, the most advanced codes available for this purpose are atomic scattering programs, which include few of the features intrinsic to the laser-atom problem. By using a mixed radial mesh/angular momentum state representation of the atomic wavefunctions we find that we can reproduce the results from atomic scattering codes with an order of magnitude less effort, for cases where one electron is assumed to ionize. With this method we can calculate angular distributions and electron energy spectra, which have not previously been available from realistic numerical simulations.

© 1989 Optical Society of America