Survival of Rydberg atoms in intense laser fields and the role of nondipole effects

Abstract

We consider the interaction of Rydberg atoms with strong infrared laser pulses using an approach based on the Magnus expansion of the time evolution operator. First-order corrections beyond the electric dipole approximation are also included in the theory. We illustrate the dynamics of the interaction at the parameters of the experiment [Eichmann et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 203002 (2013)]. It emerges that the depletion of Rydberg atoms in this regime comes predominantly from the nondipole effects.