Coulomb effect on the left–right asymmetry in photoelectron emission with few-cycle laser pulses

•The asymmetry in electron emission by few-cycle pulse is studied with CVA theory.•The asymmetry in CVA deviates from the SFA simulation.•The asymmetry curve in CVA has a phase shift as the laser intensity increases.•The Coulomb effect on the asymmetry in electron emission is revealed.

We theoretically study the strong-field ionization of hydrogen atom in few-cycle laser pulses with the Coulomb–Volkov distorted-wave approximation (CVA) theory and focus on the role of the Coulomb potential in the left–right asymmetry of the photoelectron yields along the laser polarization direction, by comparing the CVA results with strong-field approximation (SFA) simulations. Our simulations show that the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) dependent asymmetry in CVA deviates from the SFA simulation and more interestingly, there is a phase shift of the asymmetry curve as a function of CEP when the laser intensity increases, contrary to what is expected in the SFA simulations. In terms of the simple man's model, the deviation of the asymmetry curves in CVA from the SFA simulations is attributed to the significant influence of the Coulomb potential on the forward rescattering electron which will get close to the core again after tunneling ionization. Furthermore, the laser-intensity dependence of the phase shift of the asymmetry curves in CVA is elucidated.