Attosecond photoemission delay in the inhomogeneous field

Abstract

We investigate the photoemission process of the hydrogen atom in a spatial-dependent infrared (IR) field. The results show that the inhomogeneous field induces an additional contribution to the photoemission time delay, which results in the increase (decrease) of the photoemission time delay due to the enhancement (decay) of the IR field intensity in space when compared to the case in the homogeneous field. Based on the photoemission time delay in the inhomogeneous field, we demonstrate a method to extract the inhomogeneous parameter that is vital for characterizing the spatial distribution of IR field. The proposed method might pave an accessible route toward describing the plasmon-enhanced fields in the vicinity of a nanostructure.