Angular distributions of atomic photoelectrons produced in the uv and xuv regimes

We present angular distributions of photoelectrons of atomic model systems excited by intense linearly polarized laser pulses in the vuv and xuv regimes. We solve the multidimensional time-dependent Schrodinger equation for one particle on large spatial grids and investigate the direction dependence of the emitted electrons for isotropic s states as well as p states. Although the ponderomotive potential is small compared to the binding energy of the initially bound electron and the photon energy of the exciting laser field, richly structured photoelectron angular distributions are found which sensitively depend on the laser frequency and intensity as well as on the number of absorbed photons. The occurring shapes are explained in terms of scattering mechanisms.