Laser-induced deformation of atomic p± orbitals in orthogonally polarized two-color laser fields

Abstract

We study the photoelectron momentum distribution from strong-field ionization of atomic p ± orbitals in an orthogonally polarized two-color (OTC) laser field. We find that the atomic p ± orbitals are deformed in the OTC field, which significantly varies the left–right asymmetries of the electron yield in the photoelectron momentum distribution. By developing a strong-field approximation model that includes the orbital deformation effect, we show that the orbital deformation has a significant effect on the instantaneous ionization rate, while it plays a negligible role in the subcycle electron interference. By taking the spin-orbit coupling into account, we further show that the orbital deformation effect can be used to produce angular-resolved spin-polarized photoelectrons. Our study paves the way for producing spatially separated high degree spin-polarized electrons.