Abstract
In this chapter we shall introduce the fundamental effects that occur when intense laser light interacts with isolated atoms, that is, ionization by the laser field, laser-assisted recombination (i.e., harmonic generation), and laser-assisted collisional ionization (nonsequential ionization). The focus of this chapter is on a self-contained but concise account of these most fundamental effects and the common theory behind them. Readers interested in more details on particular subjects (or subjects not covered at all in this chapter) may find the following (incomplete) list of reviews and monographs useful: [1–4] (general), [5] (tunneling ionization), [6] (intense-field S-matrix theory), [7] (few-cycle laser pulses), [8, 9] (above-threshold ionization), [10] (harmonic generation), [11] (stabilization), [12] (multiple ionization), [13–15] (attosecond physics), [16] (“double-slit in time”), [17] (two-electron atoms in laser fields), [18] (Floquet method and beyond), [19, 20] (relativistic laser-atom interaction), [21, 22] (time-dependent density functional theory), [23–24, 25] (molecules in intense laser fields), and [24-27] (laser–cluster interaction).
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Mulser, P., Bauer, D. (2010). Intense Laser–Atom Interaction. In: High Power Laser-Matter Interaction. Springer Tracts in Modern Physics, vol 238. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-46065-7_7
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