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Theory of high-harmonic generation by low-frequency laser fields

Lewenstein, Maciej ; Balcou, Ph ; Ivanov, M. Yu ; L'Huillier, Anne LU orcid and Corkum, P. B. (1994) In Physical Review A 49(3). p.2117-2132
Abstract

We present a simple, analytic, and fully quantum theory of high-harmonic generation by low-frequency laser fields. The theory recovers the classical interpretation of Kulander et al. in Proceedings of the SILAP III Works hop, edited by B. Piraux (Plenum, New York, 1993) and Corkum [Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1994 (1993)] and clearly explains why the single-atom harmonic-generation spectra fall off at an energy approximately equal to the ionization energy plus about three times the oscillation energy of a free electron in the field. The theory is valid for arbitrary atomic potentials and can be generalized to describe laser fields of arbitrary ellipticity and spectrum. We discuss the role of atomic dipole matrix elements, electron rescattering... (More)

We present a simple, analytic, and fully quantum theory of high-harmonic generation by low-frequency laser fields. The theory recovers the classical interpretation of Kulander et al. in Proceedings of the SILAP III Works hop, edited by B. Piraux (Plenum, New York, 1993) and Corkum [Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1994 (1993)] and clearly explains why the single-atom harmonic-generation spectra fall off at an energy approximately equal to the ionization energy plus about three times the oscillation energy of a free electron in the field. The theory is valid for arbitrary atomic potentials and can be generalized to describe laser fields of arbitrary ellipticity and spectrum. We discuss the role of atomic dipole matrix elements, electron rescattering processes, and of depletion of the ground state. We present the exact quantum-mechanical formula for the harmonic cutoff that differs from the phenomenological law Ip+3.17Up, where Ip is the atomic ionization potential and Up is the ponderomotive energy, due to the account for quantum tunneling and diffusion effects.

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author
; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Physical Review A
volume
49
issue
3
pages
16 pages
publisher
American Physical Society
external identifiers
  • scopus:0028387020
ISSN
1050-2947
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevA.49.2117
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
b46c5830-2fea-4f70-b078-6b464755f4b2
date added to LUP
2019-05-22 16:36:53
date last changed
2021-10-10 03:51:40
@article{b46c5830-2fea-4f70-b078-6b464755f4b2,
  abstract     = {{<p>We present a simple, analytic, and fully quantum theory of high-harmonic generation by low-frequency laser fields. The theory recovers the classical interpretation of Kulander et al. in Proceedings of the SILAP III Works hop, edited by B. Piraux (Plenum, New York, 1993) and Corkum [Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1994 (1993)] and clearly explains why the single-atom harmonic-generation spectra fall off at an energy approximately equal to the ionization energy plus about three times the oscillation energy of a free electron in the field. The theory is valid for arbitrary atomic potentials and can be generalized to describe laser fields of arbitrary ellipticity and spectrum. We discuss the role of atomic dipole matrix elements, electron rescattering processes, and of depletion of the ground state. We present the exact quantum-mechanical formula for the harmonic cutoff that differs from the phenomenological law Ip+3.17Up, where Ip is the atomic ionization potential and Up is the ponderomotive energy, due to the account for quantum tunneling and diffusion effects.</p>}},
  author       = {{Lewenstein, Maciej and Balcou, Ph and Ivanov, M. Yu and L'Huillier, Anne and Corkum, P. B.}},
  issn         = {{1050-2947}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{2117--2132}},
  publisher    = {{American Physical Society}},
  series       = {{Physical Review A}},
  title        = {{Theory of high-harmonic generation by low-frequency laser fields}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.49.2117}},
  doi          = {{10.1103/PhysRevA.49.2117}},
  volume       = {{49}},
  year         = {{1994}},
}