Generation of Rydberg states of hydrogen atoms with intense laser pulses: The roles of Coulomb force and initial lateral momentum

Abstract

We investigate the Rydberg states generation of Hydrogen atoms with intense laser pulses, by solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation and by means of classical trajectory monte-carlo simulations. Both linearly polarized multi-cycle pulses and pairs of optical half cycle pulses are used. Comparisons between these methods show that both the Coulomb force and initial lateral momentum, which have effects on the $n$-distribution and $l$-distribution of the population of excited states, are important in the generation of Rydberg states.