A theoretical derivation is given for the formula describing N-electron ionization of atom by a dc field and laser radiation in tunneling regime. Numerical examples are presented for noble gases atoms.
We consider tunneling of two interacting atoms with an even spatial symmetry. The atoms are prepared in two lowest excited states with respect to relative and center-of-mass motions. We observe monotonic and non-monotonic dependence of the decay rate of the total probability as a function of the interatomic coupling strength $g$. We find a transition from uncorrelated to correlated pair tunneling as a function of $g$ and an external trap barrier. The similar system has been investigated for two interacting $^6$Li atoms in the deterministic Heidelberg experiment.
We discuss the possibility of non-exponential tunneling ionization of atoms irradiated by intense laser field. This effect can occur at times, which are greater than the lifetime of a system under consideration. The mechanism for non-exponential depletion of an initial quasi-stationary state is the cutting of the energy spectrum of final continuous states at long times. We first consider the known examples of cold emission of electrons from metal, tunneling alpha-decay of atomic nuclei, spontaneous decay in two-level systems and the single-photon atomic ionization by a weak electromagnetic fie…
The tunneling ionization of exotic atoms such as muonic hydrogen, muonium and positronium in a strong laser field of circular polarization is investigated taking into account the impact of the motion of the center of mass on the the tunneling ionization dynamics. The momentum partition between the ionization products is deduced. The effect of the center of mass motion for the momentum distribution of the ionization components is determined. The effect scales with the ratio of the electron (muon) to the atomic core masses and is nonnegligible for exotic atoms, while being insignificant for comm…
We study a feasibility of precision measurements of surface potentials at micrometer distances using resonant tunneling of cold atoms trapped in vertical optical lattices. A modulation of an amplitude of the lattice potential induces atomic tunneling among the lattice sites. The resonant modulation frequency corresponds to a difference of potential energy between latices sites which is defined by external force i.e. gravity. The vicinity of the surface alters the external potentials, and hence the resonant frequency. Application of this method allows accurate study of Casimir-type potentials a…
We present results of high-resolution experiments on single ionization of He, Ne and Ar by ultra-short (25 fs, 6 fs) 795 nm laser pulses at intensities 0.15-2.0x10^15 W/cm^2. We show that the ATI-like pattern can survive deep in the tunneling regime and that the atomic structure plays an important role in the formation of the low-energy photoelectron spectra even at high intensities. The absence of ponderomotive shifts, the splitting of the peaks and their degeneration for few-cycle pulses indicate that the observed structures originate from a resonant process.
Pulsed field ionization of high-$n$ (90 $\leq n \leq$ 150) manifold states in Rb Rydberg atoms has been investigated in high slew-rate regime. Two peaks in the field ionization spectra were systematically observed for the investigated $n$ region, where the field values at the lower peak do not almost depend on the excitation energy in the manifold, while those at the higher peak increase with increasing excitation energy. The fraction of the higher peak component to the total ionization signals increases with increasing $n$, exceeding 80% at $n$ = 147. Characteristic behavior of the peak compo…
The elaborate energy and momentum spectra of ionized electrons from atoms in laser fields suggest that the ionization dynamics described by tunneling theory should be modified. Although many efforts have been done within semiclassical models, there are few discussions describing multiphoton absorption process with quantum framework. In this letter, by comparing the results obtained with the time-dependent Schrodinger equation (TDSE) and Keldysh-Faisal-Reiss (KFR) theory, we have studied the nonperturbative effects of ionization dynamics beyond KFR theory. The difference in momentum spectra bet…
We take advantage of the information provided by use of elliptical polarization in a recent two-electron release time experiment [A.N. Pfeiffer et al., Nature Physics 7, 428 (2011)]. This allows a comparative test of the currently dominant conjectures regarding independent-electron tunneling theory vs. fully electron-correlated classical release theory to describe electron release in strong-field double ionization.
We study the motion of a cold atom in a frequency-modulated standing laser wave. If the detuning between the atomic electronic transition and the field is large, the atom moves in a modulated optical potential demonstrating known classical nonlinear effects such as chaos and nonlinear resonances. If the atom-field detuning is small, then two optical potentials emerge in the system, and the atom performs Landau-Zener (LZ) tunnelings between them. It is a radically non-classical behavior. However, we show that classical nonlinear structures in system's phase space (KAM-tori and chaotic layers) s…
Statistical Characteristics of Tunneling States in Strong-Field Atomic Ionization
College of Physics and Information Technology and Quantum Materials and Devices Key Laboratory of Shaanxi Province’s High Education Institution, Shaanxi Normal University(陕西师范大学物理与信息工程学院、陕西省高校量子材料与器件重点实验室);College of Physics and Hebei Key Laboratory of Photophysics Research and Application, Physics Postdoctoral Research Station, Hebei Normal University(河北师范大学物理学院、河北省光物理研究与应用重点实验室、物理学博士后科研流动站);Hebei Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information and Geo-detection Technology, School of Mathematics and Science, Hebei GEO University(河北地质大学数理学院、河北省光电信息与地质探测技术重点实验室);College of Physics, Henan Normal University(河南师范大学物理学院)
We investigate the quantum dynamics of two interacting bosonic atoms confined in a one-dimensional anharmonic trap. The tunneling rate, an experimentally measurable parameter of the system, was calculated as a function of the effective coupling interatomic constant $g$ from the ground (n=N=0) and first excited atomic states in the trap with respect to relative (n=2,N=0) and center-of-mass (n=0,N=2) atomic motion. This allows to investigate the initial population and pair correlation, as well as the effective coupling constant $g$, of the system by comparing the calculated tunneling rate with t…
We present progress towards a planned experiment on atomic tunneling of ultra-cold Rb atoms. As a first step in this experiment we present a realization of an improved form of "delta-kick cooling." By application of a pulsed magnetic field, laser cooled Rb atoms are further cooled by a factor of 10 (in 1-D) over the temperature out of molasses. Temperatures below 700 nK are observed. The technique can be used not only to cool without fundamental limit (but conserving phase-space density), but also to focus atoms, and as a spin-dependent probe.
Dynamical tunneling has been observed in atom optics experiments by two groups. We show that the experimental results are extremely well described by time-periodic Hamiltonians with momentum quantized in units of the atomic recoil. The observed tunneling has a well defined period when only two Floquet states dominate the dynamics. Beat frequencies are observed when three Floquet states dominate. We find frequencies which match those observed in both experiments. The dynamical origin of the dominant Floquet states is identified.
We present a detailed comparison of strong-field ionization of diatomic molecules and their companion atoms with nearly equal ionization potentials. We perform calculations in the length and velocity gauge formulations of the molecular strong-field approximation and with the molecular tunneling theory, and in both cases we consider effects of nuclear motion. A comparison of our results with experimental data shows that the length gauge strong-field approximation gives the most reliable predictions.
Classically allowed transport is shown to compete with quantum tunneling during the ionization of atoms by ultrashort and intense laser pulses, despite Keldysh parameters smaller than unity. This is done by comparing exact probability densities with the ones obtained from purely classical propagation using the Truncated Wigner Approximation. Not only is classical transport capable of moving trajectories away from the core, but it can also furnish ionization probabilities of the same order as the quantum ones for intensities currently employed in experiments. Our results have implications rangi…
How much time does a tunneling particle spend in a barrier? A Larmor clock, one proposal to answer this question, measures the interaction between the particle and the barrier region using an auxiliary degree of freedom of the particle to clock the dwell time inside the barrier. We report on precise Larmor time measurements of ultra-cold $^{87}$Rb atoms tunneling through an optical barrier, which confirm longstanding predictions of tunneling times. We observe that atoms generally spend less time tunneling through higher barriers and that this time decreases for lower energy particles. For the …
The effects of a voltage pulse on the localization probability for a Xe atom prepared in a pure state localized on the STM surface at 0 temperature is investigated by numerically integrating the time-dependent Schroedinger equation. In these calculations the environmental interactions are neglected, and voltage pulses of 20 and 7 ns with symmetric triangular and trapezoidal shapes are considered. The atom dynamics at an environmental temperature of 4 K is studied in the frame of a stochastic, non-linear Liouville equation for the density operator. It is shown that the irreversible transfer fro…
Coherent macroscopic tunneling of a Bose-Einstein condensate between two parts of an optical lattice separated by an energy barrier is theoretically investigated. We show that by a pulsewise change of the barrier height, it is possible to switch between tunneling regime and a self-trapped state of the condensate. This property of the system is explained by effectively reducing the dynamics to the nonlinear problem of a particle moving in a double square well potential. The analysis is made for both attractive and repulsive interatomic forces, and it highlights the experimental relevance of our…