Experimental study of photodetachment in a strong laser field of circular polarization

Negative fluorine ions are exposed to a circularly polarized infrared laser pulse with a peak intensity on the order of 2.6x10¹³ W/cm². A fundamental difference, as compared to the case of linearly polarized field, is found in the absence of any structure in the photoelectron spectrum that can be associated with the quantum interference effect. This observation is in accord with our recent predictions [S. Beiser et al., Phys. Rev. A 70, 011402 (2004)]. The experiment reveals that the length gauge is appropriate for the description of the field interaction in the frame of the strong field approximation.