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Relativistic Effects in Laser-Atom Interactions

par Joachain, Charles ;Kylstra, Niels Jan
Référence Physica scripta, 68, 3, page (C72-C75)
Publication Publié, 2003-09

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

Relativistic effects arise when atoms interact with ultra-strong laser fields. Such effects are expected to become important when the ratio of the ponderomotive energy Up of an electron in the field to the electron rest mass energy mc2 becomes comparable to unity. This ratio is given by q = e2ε02/ (4m 2ω2c2), where e is the magnitude of the electron charge, ε0 is the peak strength of theelectric field and ω is the angular frequency of the laser light. We discuss recent progress in the theoretical study of relativistic effects in laser-atom interactions. Particular attention is devoted to the modifications of the laser-atom dynamics in the high-intensity, high-frequency regime where nonrelativistic theories predict a decrease of the ionization probability of atoms with increasing laser intensity.