title: Elliptical polarization favors long quantum orbits in high-order above-threshold ionization of noble gases.
abstract: We demonstrate the significant role of long quantum orbits in strong-field atomic processes by investigating experimentally and theoretically the above-threshold ionization spectra of noble gases in intense elliptically polarized laser pulses. With increasing laser ellipticity, the yields of different energy regions of the measured electron spectrum in high-order above-threshold ionization drop at different rates. The experimental features can be reproduced by a theoretical simulation based on quantum-orbit theory, revealing that increasing ellipticity favors the contributions of the long quantum orbits in the high-order above-threshold ionization process.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: XuanYang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China and Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China.
authors.forename: ChuanLiang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China and Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China.
authors.forename: YongJu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China and Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China.
authors.forename: ZiLong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Quan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: XiaoJun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: HEDPS, Center for Applied Physics and Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100084, China and Institute of Applied Physics and computational Mathematics, P. O. Box 8009, Beijing 100088, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 800-211, Shanghai 201800, China.
authors.forename: Ya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 800-211, Shanghai 201800, China.
authors.forename: ZhiZhan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short-Pulse Spectroscopy, Max-Born-Strasse 2a, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Wilhelm
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Becker