Radiative decay of autoionizing states in laser fields. I. General theory

Abstract

A theory describing the radiative decay of an autoionizing state under strong pumping by a coherent field is developed. The theory systematically takes into account the radiative decay of the unperturbed continuum. The problem at hand corresponds to the case of strongly coupled bound states decaying to electron and photon continua with the two continua also weakly coupled to each other. A master equation describing the time evolution of the atomic system is derived, and its exact solution under arbitrary initial conditions is given. The effect of radiative decay on the Fano profiles and photoelectron spectra is analyzed in detail. The time development of the system is also examined. The radiative decay of the autoionizing state and the unperturbed continuum changes the spectra in a significant way. The characteristics of the spectra are correlated with the dressed states (with complex energies) of the system. The changes in the structure of the dressed states as a function of the system parameters such as the spontaneous-emission rate and laser intensity are discussed in detail.