Theoretical description of atomic photoionization by attosecond XUV pulses in a strong laser field: the case of p-shell ionization

A theoretical description of attosecond photoionization in the presence of a strong laser field, based on the numerical solution of the Schrodinger equation, is extended to the case of p-shell ionization. In particular, Ar(3p) photoionization is considered. The main difference between this case and the previously considered case of s-shell ionization stems from the interference of the two dipole allowed channels of p-shell photoionization, which determines the angular distribution of photoelectrons in the absence of the laser field. The latter additionally distorts the angular distributions. We also extend to the initial p-shell case the model based on the strong-field approximation (SFA), which has been suggested earlier. At high photoelectron energy and low laser intensity both calculations give similar results. However, at low electron energy the SFA is inadequate. The dependence of the angular distribution on the carrier-envelope phase and the effects of orbital polarization are considered.