Coupled-coherent-states approach for high-order harmonic generation

Abstract

In this paper, we report a version of the coupled-coherent-states method which is able to accurately compute the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) spectrum of an electron in a laser field in one dimension by the use of trajectory-guided grids of Gaussian wave packets. It is shown that by periodic reprojection of the wave function and dynamically altering the basis set size, the method can account for a wave function which spreads out to cover a large area in phase space while still keeping computational expense low and ensuring the preservation of coherence of the wave function. The HHG spectra obtained show good agreement with those from a time-dependent Schr\odinger equation solver. We show also that the part of the wave function which is responsible for HHG moves along a periodic orbit which is far from that of classical motion. Although this paper is a proof of principle and therefore focused on a simple one-dimensional system, future generalizations for the multielectron case are discussed.