We use techniques of singular perturbation theory to investigate the scattering of nonrelativistic charged particles by a standing light wave (Kapitza-Dirac scattering). Unlike previous treatments, we give explicit results for the effects of the time-dependent part of the field. For low field intensity or low particle energy, we show that the leading-order effects can be found from an averaged equation, and we compute corrections. For the strong fields that can be produced by modern lasers and/or high particle energies, we show that the time dependence of the potential leads to focusing. Our methods can be applied to other problems with time-periodic potentials
