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Ionization and excitation of low-lying circular states of the hydrogen atom in strong circularly polarized laser fields

We perform ab initio calculations for the hydrogen atom initially in one of the six circular bound states with the principal quantum numbers n = 2, 3 and 4, irradiated by a short circularly polarized laser pulse of 400 nm. The field propagates in the direction parallel to the z-component of the angular momentum of the atom. We investigate probabilities for the atom to ionize or to get on some bound (excited) state or to remain in the initial state after the end of the laser pulse. In most cases, we find pronounced differences in ionization probabilities for atoms in states having different signs of magnetic quantum number. Usually electrons corotating (with respect to the laser field) ionize faster than their counter-rotating equivalents. We have found important difference in the behavior of the excitation (as a function of the peak laser intensity) for initial states with n = 2 and other n (3 or 4). For higher n the excitation is always weaker than the ionization and starts for higher intensities. For n = 2 the strong excitation appears before strong ionization due to large probability of one-photon absorption combined with population of many bound states having principal quantum numbers n from 3 up to several dozen. Quite accurate analysis of the excitation process is presented.