Low yield of near-zero-momentum electrons and partial atomic stabilization in strong-field tunneling ionization.

We measure photoelectron angular distributions of single ionization of krypton and xenon atoms by laser pulses at 1320 nm, 0.2-1.0×10(14) W/cm(2), and observe that the yield of near-zero-momentum electrons in the strong-field tunneling ionization regime is significantly suppressed. Semiclassical simulations indicate that this local ionization suppression effect can be attributed to a fraction of the tunneled electrons that are released in a certain window of the initial field phase and transverse velocity are ejected into Rydberg elliptical orbits with a frequency much smaller than that of the laser; i.e., the corresponding atoms are stabilized. These electrons with high-lying atomic orbits are thus prevented from ionization, resulting in the substantially reduced near-zero-momentum electron yield. The refined transition between the Rydberg states of the stabilized atoms has implication on the THz radiation from gas targets in strong laser fields.