A Coulomb-included model for high-order harmonic generation from atoms

TL;DR

This paper introduces a semi-analytical Coulomb-included model for high-order harmonic generation (HHG) that accurately captures electron trajectories and Coulomb effects, providing insights into ionization and recombination processes.

Contribution

The paper develops a novel Coulomb-included model for HHG that aligns well with numerical experiments and enhances understanding of Coulomb effects in strong-field atomic interactions.

Findings

Coulomb potential influences electron rescattering trajectories.

System symmetry affects electron ionization timing.

Model's HHG amplitude scaling matches numerical results.

Abstract

In strong laser-atom interactions, the Coulomb potential can affect the trajectories of rescattering electron in high-order harmonic generation (HHG). Here, by constructing a semi-analytical Coulomb-included model and comparing it with numerical experiments that allow for direct observation of electron trajectories, we identify the role of Coulomb potential in different processes of HHG. We show that the symmetry of the system determined by Coulomb potential plays an important role in the ionization process of HHG, inducing the tunneling-out time of electrons to shift towards earlier times. This symmetry-related effect reflects the quantum properties of atomic systems, in sharp contrast to the classical Coulomb-induced acceleration in the recombination process. In particular, compared with other strong-filed models, the scaling law of the amplitude of HHG electron trajectories predicted by this model agrees with the numerical experiments, indicating that the model developed here can be used to quantitatively describe HHG. This model can also be used to study strong-field ionization significantly influenced by rescattering.