Numerical modeling of laser tunneling ionization in explicit particle-in-cell codes

Methods for the calculation of laser tunneling ionization in explicit particle-in-cell codes used for modeling laser–plasma interactions are compared and validated against theoretical predictions. Improved accuracy is obtained by using the direct current form for the ionization rate. Multi level ionization in a single time step and energy conservation have been considered during the ionization process. The effects of grid resolution and number of macro-particles per cell are examined. Implementation of the ionization algorithm in two different particle-in-cell codes is compared for the case of ionization-based electron injection in a laser–plasma accelerator.