Rydberg states generation of Hydrogen atoms with intense laser pulses: the roles of Coulomb force and initial lateral momentum

TL;DR

This study explores how Coulomb force and initial lateral momentum influence Rydberg state generation in Hydrogen atoms under intense laser pulses, using quantum and classical simulation methods.

Contribution

It demonstrates the significance of Coulomb force and initial lateral momentum in Rydberg state formation, comparing quantum and classical approaches.

Findings

Both Coulomb force and initial lateral momentum affect Rydberg state distributions.

Classical and quantum methods show consistent results on the roles of these factors.

Different laser pulse types influence the excitation dynamics.

Abstract

We investigate the Rydberg states generation of Hydrogen atoms with intense laser pulses, by solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation and by means of classical trajectory monte-carlo simulations. Both linearly polarized multi-cycle pulses and pairs of optical half cycle pulses are used. Comparisons between these methods show that both the Coulomb force and initial lateral momentum, which have effects on the $n$-distribution and $l$-distribution of the population of excited states, are important in the generation of Rydberg states.