Dependence Of Rydberg-State Creation By Strong-Field Ionization On Laser Intensity (Vol 98, 033415, 2018)

We investigate numerically and analytically the intensity dependence of the fraction of electrons that end up in a Rydberg state after strong-field ionization with linearly polarized light. We find that including the intensity dependent distribution of ionization times and nonadiabatic effects leads to a better understanding of experimental results. Furthermore, we observe using classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulations that the intensity dependence of the Rydberg yield changes with wavelength and that the previously observed power-law dependence breaks down at longer wavelengths. Our work suggests that Rydberg yield measurements can be used as an independent test for nonadiabaticity in strong-field ionization.