Interferences of real trajectories and the emergence of quantum features in electron-atom scattering in a strong laser field
Using the example of electron-atom scattering in a strong laser field, it is shown that the oscillatory structure of the scattered electron spectrum can be explained as a consequence of the interference of the real electron trajectories in terms of Feynman's path integral. While in previous work on quantum-orbit theory the complex solutions of the saddle-point equations were considered, we show here that for the electron-atom scattering with much simpler real solutions a satisfactory agreement with the strong-field-approximation results can be achieved. Real solutions are applicable both for the direct (low-energy) and the rescattering (high-energy) plateau in the scattered electron spectrum. In between the plateaus and beyond the rescattering cutoff good results can be obtained using the complex (quantum) solutions and the uniform approximation. The interference of real solutions is related to the recent attosecond double-slit experiment in time.