ADLIS - Correlated electron dynamics in strong fields - theory

01.04.2006 - 31.03.2011
Research funding project
Fully controlled intense short laser pulses have found a variety of applications to the time-resolved imaging of light, nuclear motion, and electronic structure. In the very near future one expects to observe sub-femtosecond electronic motion in atoms and molecules with the help of laser-controlled electronic wave packets. P11 is devoted to the theory of this “attosecond physics”. Key questions for the project are laser ionization dynamics of few-electron systems, electron momentum distributions immediately after detachment, electronic relaxation of the ion, and imaging of molecular structure by electrons that “re-scatter” from the system due to the external field. Coupling between electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom determines molecular dissociation as well as wave packet dephasing and thermalization. Similar questions arise in nano-structures on a correspondingly slower time-scale. We will focus our work on systems that are currently being investigated in experiments or that are expected to be studied in the near future. We will also continue the development of new theoretical methods for the field. For all these systems electron correlation enters either as an inherent part of the dynamics or as an important perturbation of the basic process. The project will focus on determining the role of correlation in various systems. We will employ simple models as well as the ab initio Multi-Configuration Time-Dependent Hartree-Fock method developed during ADLIS phase 2. Method development will continue with technological improvements to provide reliable and generally applicable simulation tools for few-electron wave packet dynamics and with the inclusion of the coupling to nuclear degrees of freedom in order to be able to describe thermalization and dissociation. In a separate line of work we will cover strongly non-linear pulse propagation in dilute and dense matter. This project part continues successful collaborations with other ADLIS groups on high harmonic generation and it will be extended to include bulk matter, in particular with respect to the design of new laser sources.

People

Project leader

Project personnel

Institute

Grant funds

  • FWF - Österr. Wissenschaftsfonds (National) Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

Research focus

  • Photonics: 50%
  • Quantum many-body systems: 50%

Keywords

GermanEnglish
Attosekunden Physikattosecond physics
Wenig-Elektronen DynamikFew-electron dynamics
Physik in starken FeldernStrong field physics

Publications