AC Stark shift of the ground state of atomic hydrogen

Abstract

An analytical expression for the second-order AC Stark shift of the ground state of atomic hydrogen is derived, which is convergent for negative as well as for positive energies of intermediate states except for the resonances. To clarify the applicability of the second-order perturbation theory, we compared results with those which are obtained by us and other authors using nonperturbative methods. It appears that values obtained for the AC Stark shift using our simple formula agree on average with Floquet-method calculations up to the field strength F=0.12 (a.u.), which corresponds to I=1015 W/cm2.