Strong-field photoemission from surfaces: Theoretical approaches

Abstract

The problem of highly nonlinear photoemission from a metal surface is considered using analytical and numerical approaches. Descriptions are found which cover both the weak-field and the strong-field regimes and the transition between them. The results of a time-dependent perturbation theory are in very good agreement with those from more numerically involved schemes, including a variational version of the Floquet method and a Crank-Nicolson-like numerical scheme. The implemented Crank-Nicolson variant uses transparent boundary conditions and an incident plane-wave state in the metal. Both numerical approaches give very similar results for weak and intermediate fields, while in the strong-field regime the Crank-Nicolson scheme is more effective than the Floquet method. We find an enhancement in the effective nonlinearity in the weak-field regime, which is caused by surface scattering of the final state. The presented theory also covers angular emission probabilities as a function of light intensity and explains an increase toward forward emission with growing field strength.