LIGHT POLARIZATION EFFECTS IN LASER-ASSISTED (E, 2E) COLLISIONS - A STURMIAN APPROACH

We discuss the influence of the laser polarization on the angular distribution of the ejected electron in electron impact ionization of atomic hydrogen, in the presence of a strong laser field. To this end, we have used a lowest-order time-dependent perturbation approach and introduced a new computational scheme to evaluate the relevant second-order transition amplitudes. The calculation is performed by expanding the atomic wavefunctions (perturbed or not) on to a Sturmian basis, which allows us to exactly take into account the contribution of the continuous spectrum to the dressing of the atomic states. Our numerical results indicate that light polarization effects can lead to important modifications of the triply differential cross section for laser-assisted (e, 2e) processes.