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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Ionization in a quantized electromagnetic field

Ivan Gonoskov, G. A. Vugalter, Vyacheslav A. Mironov

Published Jun 15, 2007• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Using the analytically obtained solution of the Schrödinger equation for an electron in a quantized electromagnetic field, the ionization of an atom has been considered in the framework of a simple one-dimensional model. Expressions for the ionization rate and photoelectron spectrum have been derived and analyzed. We discuss a difference between the results obtained in the model in which the electromagnetic field is described classically and the results obtained in the model of quantized electromagnetic field. In particular, in the latter model the photoelectron spectrum can have a minimum at a certain number of absorbed photons. The minimum is a consequence of destructive interference between the contributions of two parts of the interaction operator.

DOI
10.1117/12.750177

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Using the analytically obtained solution of the Schrödinger equation for an electron in a quantized electromagnetic field, the ionization of an atom has been considered in the framework of a simple one-dimensional model. Expressions for the ionization rate and photoelectron spectrum have been derived and analyzed. We discuss a difference between the results obtained in the model in which the electromagnetic field is described classically and the results obtained in the model of quantized electromagnetic field. In particular, in the latter model the photoelectron spectrum can have a minimum at a certain number of absorbed photons. The minimum is a consequence of destructive interference between the contributions of two parts of the interaction operator.
Double ionization is studied by direct numerical integration of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a model two-electron system in the field of an electromagnetic wave in the case when the photon energy exceeds the energy required for the removal of both electrons of the atom. The probabilities of single-electron and double ionization are obtained as functions of the radiation intensity. The energy spectra and double pulse distributions of photoelectrons are analyzed. It is shown that single-photon ionization plays a significant role only in the limiting cases of weak and strong fields. The obtained results are used in an analysis of the contributions from different channels to the double-ionization process (in particular, for clarifying the role of the electron-electron interaction). The results of numerical calculations are compared with the analytic model of the phenomenon.
We describe a procedure that allows us to solve the three-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation for an atom interacting with a quantized one-mode electromagnetic field. Atom-field interaction is treated in an ab initio way prescribed by quantum electrodynamics. We use the procedure to calculate probability distributions of absorbed photons in the regime of tunneling ionization. We analyze evolution of the reduced photon density matrix describing the state of the field. We show that non-diagonal density matrix elements decay quickly, as a result of the decoherence process. A stochastic model, viewing ionization as a Markovian birth-death process, reproduces the main features of the calculated photon distributions.
The ionization of a model atom in a strong single-mode non-classical electromagnetic field is studied beyond the perturbation approach using the model of ``one discrete level + continuum'' for the atom. Explicit analytical expressions for the time-dependent probability of atomic ionization are obtained for different initial states of radiative field: Fock state, coherent wave packet, squeezed vacuum state. The results are compared to the ionization decay of discrete atomic level in a classical light field, and are analyzed for different mean number of radiative photons. The time-dependent distribution of the quantized field over photon number states is examined.
We consider ionization of an atom by the electromagnetic field in a Fock state $|N\ensuremath{\rangle}$: An eigenvector of the operator ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{N}}_{\mathbit{k},\ensuremath{\lambda}}={\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{a}}_{\mathbit{k},\ensuremath{\lambda}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}{\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{a}}_{\mathbit{k},\ensuremath{\lambda}}$ of the number of photons in the mode $\mathbit{k},\ensuremath{\lambda}$. We treat the electromagnetic field in a quantized way, which allows us to obtain the photon picture of the strong field ionization. We obtain, in particular, probability distributions for the number of absorbed photons in the process of strong field ionization for atomic systems governed by short-range and Coulomb potentials.
The photoionization of atoms in a strong electromagnetic field leads to the effect of "above-threshold" ionization, displaying a number of peaks in the energy spectrum of the photoelectrons. In the case of a one-electron model atom in a circularly polarized field, we derive expressions that describe the position as well as the intensity of those peaks as a function of the field parameters by means of a nonperturbative method. It is immediately clear from our formulas that the lowest-energy peaks in general disappear with increasing field intensity, for Coulomb-like as well as shortrange potentials. For a zero-range potential, a numerical evaluation is easily performed, leading to results that are in every respect qualitatively similar to the experimental results obtained thus far on these kinds of processes.
A simple, "exactly solvable" atomic model will be presented that helps to discuss some of the interesting features of multiphoton ionization of atoms. The electromagnetic field is treated non-perturbatively, it can be strong. The atomic electrons are assumed to be non-interacting (Hartree model). They are bound in a harmonic oscillator potential (one- or three-dimensional). At the ionization energy, the potential is cut off and the free electron has no Coulomb attraction. The Schrodinger equation has exact analytic solutions valid in the inner or outer regions. If the field is turned on adiabatically, the exact solution can be found by matching these solutions at the boundary; both of their value and the normal derivative at all times. Thus the machine calculation reduces to repeated application of fast Fourier transforms and to the solution of linear equations (unfortunately a lot of them).