Nondipole tunneling dynamics in strong-field ionization from atomic <i>p</i> orbitals

Abstract The nondipole effect breaks the symmetry of the laser field along the propagation direction, while the atomic p orbitals introduce distinct projections of the angular momentum along the quantization axis different from the s orbitals. The coupling between them gives rise to intriguing nondipole tunneling dynamics during the process of strong-field ionization. In this work, we develop a magnetic quantum number m -resolved nondipole saddle-point approximation method to investigate the nondipole tunneling dynamics of Ne 2 p orbitals in strong laser fields. Our findings reveal that photoelectrons from different initial atomic orbitals display distinct dynamical behaviors both at the tunnel exit and in the asymptotic region. Specifically, the electron emitted from the orbital counterrotating to the electric field acquires a larger initial linear momentum transfer at the tunnel exit but a smaller asymptotic linear momentum transfer in the asymptotic region compared to that from the corotating orbital. Our study provides detailed insights into the nondipole tunneling dynamics of photoelectrons from different atomic orbitals in a time-resolved manner.