Mechanisms of infrared-laser-assisted atomic ionization by attosecond pulses

We propose a mechanism to understand the infrared (IR) laser assisted atomic ionization by attosecond pulses (AP). Atomic structures in an IR laser field are described by Floquet states and atoms can be ionized to a Floquet state by a single AP through different Floquet components. The interference of ionization through different Floquet components results in the oscillation of the ionization yield as a function of the arriving time of the AP. The proposed mechanism explains the recent experimental observations [ Johnsson et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 233001 (2007)]. Furthermore, we find that, for a specified photoelectron energy, the ionization yield always oscillates as a function of the relative phase between the AP and the IR laser for both He and Ar atoms.