Coulomb-free and Coulomb-distorted recolliding quantum orbits in photoelectron holography

Abstract: We perform a detailed analysis of the different types of orbits in the Coulomb Quantum Orbit Strong-field Approximation (CQSFA), ranging from direct to those undergoing hard collisions. We show that some of them exhibit clear counterparts in the standard formulations of the strong-field approximation for direct and rescattered above-threshold ionization, and show that the standard orbit classification commonly used in Coulomb-corrected models is over-simplified. We identify several types of rescattered orbits, such as those responsible for the low-energy structures reported in the literature, and determine the momentum regions in which they occur. We also find formerly overlooked interference patterns caused by backscattered, Coulomb-corrected orbits and assess their effect on photoelectron angular distributions. These orbits improves the agreement of photoelectron angular distributions computed with the CQSFA with the outcome of ab-initio methods for high-energy phtotoelectrons perpendicular to the field-polarization axis.