New one-dimensional atomic model potential optimized for the calculation of the HHG spectrum

The true understanding of the phenomena in attosecond and strong-field physics often needs the quantum evolution of an involved atomic system driven by a strong laser pulse. For linearly polarized pulses, one-dimensional (1D) approximations provide good results with high efficiency. Building on previously used 1D atomic model potentials [1,2], we introduce a new 1D atomic model potential for the 1D simulation of the quantum dynamics of a single active electron atom driven by a strong, linearly polarized near-infrared laser pulse [3]. This is done based on an analysis of the electron's dynamics on the attosecond timescale, with the goal of a quantitatively correct HHG spectrum, without the need of any scaling. By comparing numerical simulation results of typical strong-field physics scenarios in 1D and 3D, we show that the new 1D model potential enables to compute the single atom response with impressively increased accuracy for the most frequently used driving laser pulse parameters. We expect that this novel potential can also be successfully used as a building block in the 1D quantum modelling and simulation of somewhat larger atomic systems, and it may also lead to more effective ensemble simulations of HHG spectra based on quantum dynamics.

[1] Sz. Majorosi et al. Phys. Rev. A, 98:023401, (2018)

[2] Sz. Majorosi et al. Phys. Rev. A, 101:023405, (2020)

[3] Krisztina Sallai, Szabolcs Hack, Szilárd Majorosi and Attila Czirják: “One-dimensional model potentials optimized for the calculation of the HHG spectrum”, arXiv:2401.13724