NONLINEAR EFFECTS IN ELECTRON AND PHOTON EMISSION FROM ATOMS IN INTENSE LASER FIELDS

Abstract

Atoms subject to intense laser fields are capable of absorbing many more photons than the minimum number needed to ionize. This leads to two striking nonlinear phenomena, above-threshold ionization, and high-order harmonic generation. We have used time-dependent methods to calculate both these processes nonperturbatively for realistic, three-dimensional atoms. This allows us to clarify the relationships between photon and electron emission rates in the strong field regime.