Role of the Coulomb singularity in high-order harmonic generation
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 USA (United States)
- ITAMP, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (United States)
High-order harmonic generation (HHG) from a single hydrogen atom is studied analytically and numerically in the regime of small Keldysh parameter. The HHG spectra from different Coulomb-like model potentials, such as soft-core and/or one-dimensional (1D) potentials are compared to the three-dimensional (3D) Coulomb potential. It is shown, using analytic arguments, that the famous plateau in the HHG spectrum owes its existence to the Coulomb singularity, whereas soft-core potentials give spectra that fall off exponentially with increasing frequency. The idea is demonstrated numerically on a 3D soft-core potential that has the same long-range asymptotic behavior and ground-state energy as hydrogen. In addition, a number of widely used 1D Coulomb-like potentials are discussed. It is shown that in order that a 1D potential be a reasonable substitute for the 3D Coulomb potential, it must have a cusp singularity. A specific potential satisfying this criterion is proposed.
- OSTI ID:
- 20786336
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 72, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.72.063411; (c) 2005 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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