Theory of multiphoton and tunnel ionization in a bichromatic field

The imaginary-time method [6, 7] is used to calculate the multiphoton and tunnel ionization probabilities for atoms in a laser radiation field part of which is converted into the second harmonic. We assume that the first harmonic has a linear or elliptical polarization and the second harmonic is polarized linearly, with its polarization vector making an arbitrary angle with that of the first harmonic. The mean momentum of the photoelectrons knocked out from atoms is shown to depend on the phase shift between the first and second harmonics and their mutual polarization and to be identically equal to zero for a monochromatic field. An important difference between the case of elliptical polarization and the case of linear polarization of both harmonics is the absence of conditions under which the conditions for dominance of one of the two generation mechanisms considered here can be identified during the generation of terahertz radiation from the region of optical breakdown in a gas.