Practical scaling law for photoelectron angular distributions

A practical scaling law that predicts photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) is derived using angular distribution formulas which explicitly contain spontaneous emission. The scaling law is used to analyze recent PAD measurements in above-threshold ionization, and to predict results of future experiments. Our theoretical and numerical studies show that, in the non-relativistic regime and long-wavelength approximation, the shapes of PADs are determined by only three dimensionless numbers: (1) u(p)=Up/(h) over bar omega, the ponderomotive number (ponderomotive energy in units of laser photon energy); (2) epsilonb = E-b/(h) over bar omega, the binding number (atomic binding energy in units of the laser photon energy); (3) j, the absorbed-photon number. The scaling law is shown to be useful in predictions of results from strong-field Kapitza-Dirac effect measurements; specifically, the application of this scaling law to recently reported Kapitza-Dirac diffraction is discussed. Possible experimental tests to verify the scaling law are suggested.