Abstract
We study the dynamics of one-electron atoms interacting with a pulsed, elliptically polarized, ultrashort, and coherent state. We use path integral methods. We path integrate the photonic part and extract the corresponding influence functional describing the interaction of the pulse with the atomic electron. Then we angularly decompose it. We keep the first-order angular terms in all but the last factor as otherwise their angular integration would contribute infinites as the number of time slices tends to infinity. Further we use the perturbative expansion of the last factor in powers of the inverse volume and integrate on time. Finally, we obtain a closed angularly decomposed expression of the whole path integral. As an application we develop a scattering theory and study the two-photon ionization of hydrogen.
Keywords
- path integrals
- influence functional
- perturbation
- coherent state
- hydrogen
- sign solved propagator
- two photons
1. Introduction
The study of the interaction of radiation with matter is an area of major importance in physics. The production in laboratories of pulses of various durations and central frequencies has given a further boost in that study. These pulses can be used in the study of various elementary processes such as the excitation or photoionization of atoms [1–7]. This is possible due to their short time length of the order of a few femtoseconds or of a few hundreds attoseconds. Sub-100-as pulses have been generated as well. Moreover, their photons’ energy may belong in the ultraviolet or extreme ultraviolet and therefore just one or two photons may be enough to cause excitation or ionization.
In the present chapter, we introduce a fully quantum mechanical field theoretical treatment, for the interaction of a pulsed, elliptically polarized ultrashort coherent state with one optically active electron atoms. We use path integral methods. So we integrate the photonic part and extract the corresponding influence functional describing the interaction of the pulse with the atomic electron.
Proceeding we use the discrete form of that influence functional and angularly decompose its expression. We keep first-order angular terms in all but the last factor as otherwise their angular integration would contribute infinites as the number of time slices tends to infinity. Further, we use the perturbative expansion of the last factor in powers of the inverse volume and integrate on time. So we generate a perturbative series describing the action of the photonic field on the electron of the atom. It includes photonic and vacuum fluctuations contributions. Moreover, we manipulate the angular parts of the atomic action via standard path integral methods to finally obtain a closed angularly decomposed expression of the whole path integral.
As an application we develop a scattering theory and we study the two-photon ionization of hydrogen from its ground state to continuum. For the same transitions and to the same order vacuum fluctuation terms contribute as well. In the present application we consider orthogonal pulses. We use the propagator that appears in its sign solved propagator (SSP) form Ref. [8]. Previously, we have considered other kinds of photonic states interacting with one-electron atoms (see Refs. [6, 7, 9, 10]).
The present chapter proceeds as follows. In Section 2, we describe the present system and integrate its photonic part. Then in Section 3, we give the angular decomposition of the propagator in the case of elliptic polarization. In Section 4, we give an application and our conclusions in Section 5. Finally, in the Appendix we give some functions necessary in the evaluation of certain integrals.
2. System Hamiltonian and path integration
In the present chapter, we consider a one-electron atom initially in its ground state under the action of a coherent state. Therefore, the system Hamiltonian
where
while the interaction term
We have set
Now we combine the photonic field variables in the term
The propagator between the initial and final states corresponding to the Hamiltonian Eq. (1) can be obtained by integrating on both the space and photonic field variables. At first we integrate the photonic field variables, which appear only in
where
The propagator in Eq. (9) with diagonal field variables (
The parameters are given as follows:
In the case of a field transition between an initial photonic state
Here we consider that we have a field transition from an initial coherent state
where
The action is
where
We notice the following identities:
On using them and for arbitrary
Finally, upon using an inverse Fourier transform we obtain the following functional identities
In the above expressions, the summation is to be performed symmetrically. Identity in Eq. (25) is to be used in Eqs. (19) and (20). The delta functions do not contribute in the final expressions of Section 4 at the specific times introduced by them the photonic influence functional becomes zero. Moreover, the measure of all those times is zero. Further to handle the exponential in Eq. (20) within the scattering theory of Section 4 we use the limit
Now due to the large volume
higher terms than the first one, as they are going to involve powers of higher order in
and has equation of motion
Therefore we can set,
In the case of the presence of
Then the propagator
where
Finally, we notice that in the long wavelength approximation we can set
Now we proceed to the angular decomposition of the above expressions.
3. Angular decomposition
We intend to perform angular decomposition and evaluate the SSP corresponding to the propagator of Eq. (19) in the long wavelength approximation.
Here we consider elliptic polarization so that the polarization vector takes the form
where
The propagator
All the functions with index
Additionally, we note that we have set
Now we insert delta functions in Eq. (37) to get the expression
We have defined
We have set
where
where
We notice that if
and
On integrating over
Finally, we replace the delta functions in Eq. (40) with the above angularly decomposed expressions. As
where after standard manipulations [11] on the angular parts of the atomic system
Further we observe that
So Eq. (51) becomes
where
We notice that to evaluate the integrals in Eq. (54) we have to take into account the expressions of Eqs. (46) and (47). Then we expand it on parameters of interest and integrate on time.
In the next section, we use the present propagator in its SSP form which appears after the solution of the sign problem. It is
We have dropped the phase due to the atomic Hamiltonian because in the subsequent application of the present chapter, it eventually cancels.
4. Application and results
Proceeding to an application of the present theory we apply the above formalism to the case of the ionization of hydrogen. In that case the potential is given as
We use as an initial state, the hydrogen’s ground one with wavefuction,
where
The final state of the ionized electron with wave vector
It has energy
and partial wave expansion
is the radial function and
where
According to standard scattering theory we obtain the following form of the transition amplitude
The effective Hamiltonian
Moreover
We set
Now to proceed we set
We have supposed that the duration of the pulse is
We have used the prior form of the transition amplitude.
As the present theory is PT symmetric we have to use PT symmetric quantum mechanics. So our equations take their final form according to the fact that
Here we want to study two-photon ionization processes. They are of order
Upon expanding to powers of volume the sign solved propagators appearing in Eq. (70) take the form
and
Finally, we obtain the second-order transition probability
Here we consider the case of an orthogonal pulse of duration
In Figure 1, we plot the second-order term
5. Conclusions
In the present chapter we have used path-integral methods in the study of the interaction of electrons with photonic states. We have integrated the photonic field and then angularly decomposed the electron—photonic field influence functional. Within those manipulations there have appeared terms due to the electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations.
As an application we have developed a scattering theory and used it in the two-photon ionization of hydrogen. For those transitions, the electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations contribute to the same order. Moreover to handle the path integrals that appear, we have used the relevant propagators in their sign solved propagator (SSP) form. The SSP theory appears in Ref. [8].
Concluding the present method is tractable and can be used in many problems involving the quantum mechanics of one-electron atoms interacting with radiation.
In Eq. (49), we have the expression (here we drop the
where Θ(
We give the following cases:
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