Abstract

It is shown that the Coulomb interaction among electrons that is produced by the laser-induced surface multiphoton photoeffect may change the initial energy spectrum of the electrons dramatically. The expansion of a photoelectron bunch (during transit from the surface to a detector) results in an increase of the electron energy and a broadening of the energy spectrum. The theoretical estimates of this effect are in good agreement with experimental energy spectra [ Phys. Rev. A 41, 4123 ( 1990)]. The unexpectedly high energy of the electrons can be explained by the Coulomb interaction between the electrons.

© 1991 Optical Society of America

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