Dynamic Interference of Photoelectrons Produced by High-Frequency Laser Pulses

The ionization of an atom by a high-frequency intense laser pulse, where the energy of a single photon is sufficient to ionize the system, is investigated from first principles. It is shown that as a consequence of an ac Stark effect in the continuum, the energy of the photoelectron follows the envelope of the laser pulse. This is demonstrated to result in strong dynamic interference of the photoelectrons of the same kinetic energy emitted at different times. Numerically exact computations on the hydrogen atom demonstrate that the dynamic interference spectacularly modifies the photoionization process and is prominently manifested in the photoelectron spectrum by the appearance of a distinct multipeak pattern. The general theory is well approximated by explicit analytical expressions that allow for a transparent understanding of the discovered phenomena and for making predictions on the dependence of the measured spectrum on the pulse.