English

Near-ionization-threshold emission in atomic gases driven by intense sub-cycle pulses

Atomic Physics 2016-02-05 v3 Quantum Physics

Abstract

We study theoretically the dipole radiation of a hydrogen atom driven by an intense sub-cycle pulse. The time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation for the system is solved by ab initio calculation to obtain the dipole response. Remarkably, a narrowband emission lasting longer than the driving pulse appears at a frequency just above the ionization threshold. An additional calculation using the strong field approximation also recovers this emission, which suggests that it corresponds to the oscillation of nearly-bound electrons that behave similarly to Rydberg electrons. The predicted phenomenon is unique to ultrashort driving pulses but not specific to any particular atomic structure.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1503.07324,
  title  = {Near-ionization-threshold emission in atomic gases driven by intense sub-cycle pulses},
  author = {Wei-Chun Chu and John C. Travers and Philip St. J. Russell},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.07324},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

8 pages, 2 figures