Long-range Energy Transfer and Ionization in Extended Quantum Systems Driven by Ultrashort Spatially Shaped Laser Pulses

TL;DR

This study investigates how ultrashort, spatially shaped laser pulses induce long-range energy transfer and ionization between two distant hydrogen atoms, revealing Coulomb interactions as key mechanisms.

Contribution

It provides a detailed quantum dynamical analysis of energy transfer and ionization in extended H-H systems driven by tailored laser pulses, beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.

Findings

Efficient energy transfer from laser-excited atom to distant atom.

Ionization of the distant atom through Coulomb attraction.

Identification of Coulomb attraction and electron-electron repulsion as key mechanisms.

Abstract

The processes of ionization and energy transfer in a quantum system composed of two distant H atoms with an initial internuclear separation of 100 atomic units (5.29 nm) have been studied by the numerical solution of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Thereby it has been assumed that only one of the two H atoms was excited by temporally and spatially shaped laser pulses at various laser carrier frequencies. The quantum dynamics of the extended H-H system, which was taken to be initially either in an unentangled or an entangled ground state, has been explored within a linear three-dimensional model, including two z coordinates of the electrons and the internuclear distance R. An efficient energy transfer from the laser-excited H atom (atom A) to the other H atom (atom B) and the ionization of the latter have been found. It has been shown that the physical mechanisms of the energy transfer as well as of the ionization of atom B are the Coulomb attraction of the laser driven electron of atom A by the proton of atom B and a short-range Coulomb repulsion of the two electrons when their wave functions strongly overlap in the domain of atom B.