Abstract

The theoretical methods which have been developed to analyze laser-assisted electron-atom collisions are reviewed. Firstly, the scattering of an electron by a potential in the presence of a laser field is considered. The analysis is then generalized to laser-assisted collisions of electrons with “real” atoms having an internal structure. Two methods are discussed: a semi-perturbative approach suitable for fast incident electrons and a fully non-perturbative theory—the R-matrix-Floquet method—which is applicable to the case of slow incident electrons. In particular it is shown how the dressing of the atomic states by the laser field can affect the collision cross sections.