Emulation of the dynamics of bound electron exposed to strong oscillatory laser field with Bose-Einstein Condensates

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how Bose-Einstein condensates can simulate the complex dynamics of bound electrons under strong oscillatory laser fields, revealing the influence of interactions and pulse parameters on excitation and localization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantum simulation approach using Bose-Einstein condensates to emulate electron dynamics in strong laser fields, highlighting the role of interactions and pulse characteristics.

Findings

Weak interactions cause collective oscillation within the potential well.

Increasing drive strength or interactions promotes excitation into continuum states.

High-frequency pulses suppress diffusion and enhance localization.

Abstract

This paper employs a Bose-Einstein condensates to simulate the dynamical response of bound electrons in a strongly oscillating pulsed laser field. We investigate the excitation dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates with repulsive interaction confined in a potential well with finite depth and width driven by a strong oscillatory pulse field. By numerically solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with Crank-Nicolson method and split operator method, we obtain the time-dependent wavefunction and therefore the evolution of density distribution in real space and that in momentum space, and the occupation distribution in energy space. It is shown that cold atoms with weak interaction oscillate as a whole body in a finite space when the amplitude of pulse drive is not strong enough. During the evolution atoms occupy the bound states with larger probability. Increasing the driving strength or atomic interactions promotes the excitation of atoms into continuum states and their diffusion out of the potential well, leading to complex structures or even interference-like patterns in the momentum distribution. The number of cycles in the pulse envelope plays a crucial role in the dynamical behavior: High-frequency driving can suppress diffusion and maintain localization. Furthermore, repulsive atomic interactions can enhance high-harmonic generation yields by several orders of magnitude. This study offers a new perspective for quantum simulations of ultrafast dynamics in strong fields and reveals the regulatory role of interactions in condensates on non-equilibrium dynamical processes.