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Physical Review A

Interaction of half-cycle radiation pulse with Rydberg states of atomic hydrogen

K. J. LaGattuta, P. B. Lerner

Published Mar 1, 1994• 26 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We describe the results of our solutions of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation for Rydberg states of atomic hydrogen exposed to a short pulse of ``half-cycle'' long-wavelength radiation. By ``short'' we mean that the duration of the pulse is much less than the Kepler period of the Rydberg state being irradiated. Comparison is made with the results of experiments which have been reported recently [R. Jones, D. You, and P. Bucksbaum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1236 (1993)].

DOI
10.1103/physreva.49.r1547

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We describe the results of our solutions of the time-dependent Schr"odinger equation for Rydberg states of atomic hydrogen exposed to a short pulse of half-cycle'' long-wavelength radiation. By short'' we mean that the duration of the pulse is much less than the Kepler period of the Rydberg state being irradiated. Comparison is made with the results of experiments which have been reported recently [R. Jones, D. You, and P. Bucksbaum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1236 (1993)].
Classical, quantum-mechanical, and semiclassical expressions for the transition probability in one-dimensional Rydberg atom irradiated by short half-cycle pulse are derived and compared. The simple formulas obtained for excitation of Rydberg atom by two time delayed weak half-cycle pulses reproduce well the experimental data and the solutions of time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation. When the transferred momenta are stronger and positive, the transition probabilities exhibit fast oscillations with time delay between the pulses. The classical transition probability is constant in time. For negative transferred momenta a focusing phenomenon is observed, and there is a region in time delay, where the transition probabilities oscillate with the Kepler period.
We study the ionization of Rydberg atoms by half-cycle electromagnetic pulses as a function of the duration of the pulses covering a broad range of time intervals connecting the adiabatic and sudden regimes. The threshold fields for ionization lie on a universal classical scaling invariant curve. We present quantum mechanical results which agree well with the universal curve. The n -2 threshold field scaling found experimentally is a linear approximation to the universal curve by the tangent in the region where the pulse duration is of the order of the orbital period of the atom. We predict the existence of an ultrashort pulse limit in which the threshold field scales as n -1 . Effects due to the non-hydrogenic core are negligible.
The phenomenon of interference stabilization of Rydberg atoms is studied. The residual probability W res of finding an atom in bound (Rydberg) states and the threshold of stabilization V thr are calculated in their dependence on the pulse duration τ (for pulses with smooth envelopes). At τ longer than the Kepler period t K , both W res (τ) and V thr (τ) are shown to oscillate with approximately the Kepler period. At τ < t K (the case often referred to as transient stabilization), the threshold of stabilization V thr (τ) is shown to be a growing function of a decreasing pulse duration τ. Transient stabilization is shown to be explained by the same physical reasons as interference stabilization, and this implies that the concept of interference stabilization can be used in both limits of long and short pulses.
We show the possibility of producing a short bunch of nearly bandwidth-limited few-cycle attosecond pulses based on time-dependent resonant interaction of an incident radiation pulse with the bound states of hydrogen-like atoms. Time-dependence of an atomic resonance is provided by a laser pulse far from resonance with an intensity well below the atomic ionization threshold via time-dependent tunnel ionization from the excited states and time-dependent adiabatic Stark splitting of the excited energy levels. Without external matching of the spectral components it is possible to produce pulses with durations up to 80 as at the carrier wavelength of 13.5 nm in Li 2+ -plasma, as well as pulses with durations up to 600 as at the carrier wavelength of 122 nm in atomic hydrogen.
We study the ionization of Rydberg atoms in a single-cycle-pulse electric field based on both classical and quantum calculations. The ionization-probability curve exhibits a ``ripple'' structure as a function of the pulse duration and the field amplitude. These ripple structures are found to be dependent on the angular distribution of the initial state. A large electron-emission asymmetry is observed, and the ionized electron is almost completely emitted to one side of the atom except when the pulse length is roughly one Rydberg period. In both the long-pulse and the short-pulse regimes, larger electron energy can be expected from the ionization of lower-lying Rydberg states, matching the observation in a recent experiment [S. Li and R. R. Jones, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 143006 (2014)]. This trend is closely related to the electron-emission asymmetry associated with the field-direction change in a single-cycle pulse. The possible implications of the different energy transfer in a single-cycle pulse from that in a multicycle pulse are also discussed briefly for the strong-field ionization of the ground atomic state.