Photodetachment in a strong circularly polarized laser field

The saddle-point analysis of the transition amplitude shows that the quantum interference effect does not occur in the direct process of photodetachment by a circularly polarized laser field. This fact is interpreted in terms of classical electron trajectories. Comparison between the length and velocity gauges is performed by simulating spectra of photoelectrons produced in a focus of a laser pulse. A substantial discrepancy is found in the kinetic energy distribution of photoelectrons. At low energies, only the predictions in the length gauge are consistent with the Wigner threshold law.