Electron distribution function due to ionizing laser pulse

Summary form only given, as follows. High-gradient accelerators and remote sensing are two areas in which lasers can be used to great advantage. For example, laser-driven accelerators are expected to be much smaller and less expensive than conventional radio-frequency-driven linacs. Photoionization often accompanies propagation of an intense, short laser pulse in a medium. The ionization can be either due to the tunneling mechanism or the multiphoton mechanism. A kinetic description of photoionization, using the Vlasov equation, is presented and the form of the electron distribution function for the two mechanisms is presented and discussed.