Theoretical study of spin polarization in multiphoton ionization of Xe

Abstract

Spin polarization in the multiphoton above-threshold ionization of 5p3/2- and 5p1/2-electrons of Xe with intense 395nm, circularly polarized laser pulses, is investigated theoretically. For this purpose, we solve the time-dependent Schrödinger equation on the basis of spherical spinors. We, thus, simultaneously propagate the spin-up and spin-down single-active-electron wave packets, driven by the laser pulses in the ionic potential, which includes the spin–orbit interaction explicitly. The present theoretical results are in good agreement with the recent experimental results [D. Trabert et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 043202 (2018)].