Controlling atomic structures and photoabsorption processes by an infrared laser

Abstract

We propose a theoretical method to calculate the infrared (IR) laser-assisted photoabsorption cross sections over a broad energy range by a single calculation. In this method we define an initial wave function as the product of the dipole operator and the atomic ground state, propagate the initial wave function in the IR laser field with different initial phases, then calculate the generalized autocorrelation function, which is defined as the averaged value of the autocorrelation function over the initial phase from 0 to 2π (or one IR optical cycle). The IR laser-assisted photoabsorption cross sections are obtained by the Fourier transform of the generalized autocorrelation function. We apply this method to study the IR laser-assisted photoabsorption of He atoms. From the simulation results, we see that the IR laser field affects not only the resonant position but also the lifetime or the width of the bound states. This photoabsorption cross section is an important quantity to analyze the IR-laser-assisted dynamical processes by an attosecond pulse, a pulse train, or a free-electron laser. © 2010 The American Physical Society.