Contribution of the collective electron dynamics to the polarization response of an atom subjected to intense IR and weak XUV pulses.

Abstract

We analyze the polarization response of a single Ne atom in an intense infrared (IR) laser field and weak extreme ultraviolet (XUV) isolated attosecond pulse (IAP). The analysis is based on the numerical solution of the time-dependent Kohn-Sham equations and the recently developed perturbation theory in the XUV field for an atom subjected to an intense IR field. In our numerical results, we observe a significant increase in the magnitude of the atomic polarization response at the frequencies near the carrier frequency of the IAP and associate it with XUV-induced collective dynamics contributing to the polarizability of Ne. The specific interference between IR- and XUV-induced channels is discussed, and its utilization for retrieving the phase of the generated harmonics in the IR field is suggested.