Semiclassical model for attosecond angular streaking

Attosecond angular streaking is a new technique to achieve unsurpassed time accuracy of only a few attoseconds. Recently this has been successfully used to set an upper limit on the electron tunneling delay time in strong laser field ionization. The measurement technique can be modeled with either the time-dependent Schrodinger equation (TDSE) or a more simple semiclassical approach that describes the process in two steps in analogy to the three-step model in high harmonic generation (HHG): step one is the tunnel ionization and step two is the classical motion in the strong laser field. Here we describe in detail a semiclassical model which is based on the ADK theory for the tunneling step, with subsequent classical propagation of the electron in the laser field. We take into account different ellipticities of the laser field and a possible wavelength-dependent ellipticity that is typically observed for pulses in the two-optical-cycle regime. This semiclassical model shows excellent agreement with the experimental result. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America