Resolving the quantum dynamics of near cut-off high-order harmonic generation in atoms by Bohmian trajectories.

Abstract

We present an ab initio study of the quantum dynamics of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) near the cutoff in intense laser fields. To uncover the subtle dynamical origin of the HHG near the cutoff, we extend the Bohmian mechanics (BM) approach for the treatment of attosecond electronic dynamics of H and Ar atoms in strong laser fields. The time-dependent Schrödinger equation and the self-interaction-free time-dependent density functional theory are numerically solved accurately and efficiently by means of the time-dependent generalized pseudospectral method for nonuniform spatial discretization of the Hamiltonian. We find that the most devoting trajectories calculated by the BM to the plateau harmonics are shorter traveling trajectories, but the contributions of the short trajectories near the cutoff are suppressed in HHG. As a result, the yields of those harmonics in the region near the cutoff are relatively weak. However, for the last few harmonics just above the cutoff, the HHG intensity becomes a little higher. This is because the HHG just above the cutoff arises from those electrons ionized near the peak of the laser pulse, where the ionization rate is the highest. In addition, the longer Bohmian trajectories return to the core with lower energies, these trajectories contribute to the below-threshold harmonics. Our results provide a deeper understanding of the generation of supercontinuum harmonic spectra and attosecond pulses via near cutoff HHG.