Photoelectron momentum distribution in structured strong fields

Abstract In this study, a reaction microscope is used to explore the behavior of electrons in shaped beams under strong field conditions. Photoelectron momentum spectra indicate that the inclusion of orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light does not significantly impact the available electron angular momentum states. However, the distinctive donut shape of the beam plays a crucial role in determining the observed Photoelectron Angular Distributions (PADs). TDSE simulations, incorporating focal volume averaging indicates that the geometric properties of the focal region of the OAM and the Gaussian beams affect the photoelectron spectra differently. By averaging the spectra across different intensity regions, we have provided a qualitative explanation for the variations in photoelectron spectra resulting from the shapes of the individual beams. This result shows that the transfer of OAM in ultrashort light pulses cannot be detected in gas ensembles due to the ionization being overwhelmed by atoms in the most intense region with minimal spatial phase variation within the laser field. We demonstrate that the differences in the momentum spectra arising from shaped beams can be qualitatively explained using models that incorporate the spatial averaging of the beam, rather than focusing on the OAM content.