Polarization and Angular Distribution of the Radiation Emitted in Laser Assisted Recombination

The effect of an intense external linearly polarized radiation field on the angular distributions and polarization states of the photons emitted during the radiative capture of a free electron by a bare nucleus into the ground state of the bound system is investigated. On symmetry grounds it is predicted that emission of elliptically polarized photons occurs when the momentum of the electron beam is not aligned to the direction of the oscillating field. The predictions are corroborated by numerical calculations of recombination rates carried out within a modified Keldysh-type treatment, in order to account for Coulomb effects. It is found that strong modifications to the angular distributions of the emitted photons are induced by the external radiation field.