  A new semiclassical approach to ionization by an oscillating field is
presented. For a delta-function atom, an asymptotic analysis is performed with
respect to a quantity h, defined as the ratio of photon energy to ponderomotive
energy. This h appears formally equivalent to Planck's constant in a suitably
transformed Schroedinger equation and allows semiclassical methods to be
applicable. Systematically, a picture of tunneling wave packets in complex time
is developped, which by interference account for the typical ponderomotive
features of ionization curves. These analytical results are then compared to
numerical simulations and are shown to be in good agreement.
