Interplay between relativistic energy corrections and resonant excitations in x-ray multiphoton ionization dynamics of Xe atoms

In this paper, we theoretically study x-ray multiphoton ionization dynamics of heavy atoms taking into account relativistic and resonance effects. When an atom is exposed to an intense x-ray pulse generated by an x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL), it is ionized to a highly charged ion via a sequence of single-photon ionization and accompanying relaxation processes, and its final charge state is limited by the last ionic state that can be ionized by a single-photon ionization. If x-ray multiphoton ionization involves deep inner-shell electrons in heavy atoms, energy shifts by relativistic effects play an important role in ionization dynamics, as pointed out in Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 173005 (2013). On the other hand, if the x-ray beam has a broad energy bandwidth, the high-intensity x-ray pulse can drive resonant photoexcitations for a broad range of ionic states and ionize even beyond the direct one-photon ionization limit, as first proposed in Nat. Photon. 6, 858 (2012). To investigate both relativistic and resonance effects, we extend the xatom toolkit to incorporate relativistic energy corrections and resonant excitations in x-ray multiphoton ionization dynamics calculations. Charge-state distributions are calculated for Xe atoms interacting with intense XFEL pulses at a photon energy of 1.5 keV and 5.5 keV, respectively. For both photon energies, we demonstrate that the role of resonant excitations in ionization dynamics is altered due to significant shifts of orbital energy levels by relativistic effects. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account both effects to accurately simulate multiphoton multiple ionization dynamics at high x-ray intensity.