HIGH-ORDER HARMONIC-GENERATION AND ABOVE-THRESHOLD IONIZATION IN H - CALCULATIONS USING EXPANSIONS OVER FIELD-FREE STATE-SPECIFIC WAVE-FUNCTIONS

We have computed the above-threshold ionization and the emitted harmonic spectra of H interacting with short laser pulses, with photon energies ranging from 1.16 to 5.44 eV and with peak intensities ranging from 6×1013 to 7×1014 W/cm2, by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE). The method of solution involves the expansion of the time-dependent wave function Ψ(r→,t) over the exact wave functions of the discrete and the continuous spectrum, computed numerically, and the subsequent integration of the resulting coupled first-order differential equations by a Taylor series expansion technique. This state-specific approach (SSA) to the solution of the TDSE allows systematic understanding of convergence as a function of the number and type of the field-free states for each value of the laser frequency (ω) and peak intensity (I0). For example, the method allows practical numerical study of the degree of participation of high (n,l) (l=0,1,...,n-1) Rydberg, as well as of high-energy scattering states for each partial wave. For the harmonic spectra, comparisons are made between the results obtained by the SSA and those obtained in recent years by a number of researchers from the application of finite-difference grid methods. As regards economy, a general observation is that in the SSA the necessary number of partial waves is smaller than that required in the grid methods. Predictions are made for the case of Latin small letter h with strokeω=2 eV, I0=2×1014 W/cm2, in the context of a study of the effect of the pulse shape on the harmonic-generation spectrum. It is shown that the number of harmonics and the appearance of the plateau depend on the duration of the peak intensity. © 1995 The American Physical Society.