| SPECIAL TOPIC — Ultrafast physics in atomic, molecular and optical systems |
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Quantum pathways interference in nonadiabatic strong-field ionizations driven by elliptically polarized laser pulses |
| Yidian Tian(田亦电)1, Kunlong Liu(刘昆陇)2,†, and Yueming Zhou(周月明)1 |
1 School of Physics and Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China;
2 Great Bay Institute for Advanced Study, Dongguan 523000, China |
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Abstract Ultrafast phenomena initiated by strong-field ionization are commonly interpreted within classical or semiclassical frameworks based on electron trajectories. In this work, we theoretically investigate the energy-resolved photoelectron angular distributions in above-threshold ionization (ATI) induced by elliptically polarized ultraviolet (UV) pulses and unravel the underlying dynamics from the perspective of quantum-pathway interference. By numerically solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation, we extract the contributions of the quantum pathways for an electron transitioning from the ground state to the continuum under pulses with different ellipticities. Our results demonstrate that for close-to-circularly polarized UV pulses, two quantum pathways govern the angular distribution for each ATI peak, and their interference produces a cosinusoidal oscillation in the photoelectron angular distributions, which is distinct from the Gaussian characteristic predicted by the traditional tunneling framework. In particular, the corresponding offset angle is shown to depend on the relative phase between these two dominant channels. As the ellipticity decreases, the increasing number of contributing pathways leads to a multiple-peak structure in the photoelectron angular distribution. The present study provides a quantum-mechanical perspective for understanding the angular streaking of nonadiabatic ionization in rotating fields.
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Received: 10 September 2025
Revised: 30 October 2025
Accepted manuscript online: 06 November 2025
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PACS:
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32.80.Fb
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(Photoionization of atoms and ions)
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42.50.Hz
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(Strong-field excitation of optical transitions in quantum systems; multiphoton processes; dynamic Stark shift)
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33.80.Rv
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(Multiphoton ionization and excitation to highly excited states (e.g., Rydberg states))
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32.80.Rm
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(Multiphoton ionization and excitation to highly excited states)
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| Fund: This project is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2023YFA1406800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12174133, 11874163, and 12021004), and the Innovation Project of Optics Valley Laboratory (Grant No. OVL2021ZD001). |
Corresponding Authors:
Kunlong Liu
E-mail: liukunlong@gbu.edu.cn
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Cite this article:
Yidian Tian(田亦电), Kunlong Liu(刘昆陇), and Yueming Zhou(周月明) Quantum pathways interference in nonadiabatic strong-field ionizations driven by elliptically polarized laser pulses 2026 Chin. Phys. B 35 043203
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