Plateau structures in potential scattering in a strong laser field (8 pages)
Electron-atom scattering in a strong laser field is analyzed using the strong-field approximation and modeling elastic scattering of electrons by atoms with a realistic analytical potential derived from an independent-particle model. The results that include both direct scattering and scattering with a repeated scattering (rescattering) are presented. In the latter case, in the intermediate step of the process, the electron can absorb the energy from the laser field and additional plateau structures appear. The features of these plateaus and their cutoffs are analyzed for various incident electron energies and scattering angles, for different laser intensities, and for various atomic gases. The boundaries of these plateaus are compared with classical estimates.