Description of harmonic generation in terms of the complex quasienergy. I. General formulation

Using the Hellmann-Feynman theorem for quasistationary quasienergy states of a quantum system in an intense laser field, we present the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) amplitude in terms of the complex quasienergy of a bound electron, thereby avoiding the necessity for an explicit form for the electron wave function in HHG calculations. This formulation for the HHG amplitude confirms use of the dual dipole moment (instead of the dipole moment expectation value) in wave-function-based HHG calculations in order to properly account for both the ionization and the Stark shift of the initial bound state in a strong laser field