New reduced-dimensionality models for efficient quantum-mechanical description of ultrafast strong-field phenomena

Complete text of publication follows. The development of theoretical approaches to the description of strong-field phenomena caused by ultrashort laser pulses is optical for studying the interaction of atoms and molecules with intense laser fields. In this work, we address two phenomena which attract much attention and can be observed under similar experimental conditions, namely, when a gas is ionized by ultrashort laser pulse. The first phenomenon is the excitation of high-order harmonics of the driving field frequency in the electron current, which leads to the generation of vacuum ultraviolet and soft X-ray radiation, as well as the attosecond pulse production. The second phenomenon is the excitation of a quasi-dc residual current in the laser-produced plasma, which results in the generation of radiation having a frequency below the laser one, e.g., terahertz waves. We present new one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) quantum-mechanical models for the description of such phenomena for the case a hydrogen (H) atom, and the generalization of these models to the case of various noble-gas atoms. The shape of the electrostatic potential produced by an atomic ion is shown to influence significantly the rates of the processes in the dynamics of atomic electron, and even more, the rates of the tunneling and above-barrier ionization, which is of utmost importance for the considered phenomena. The results of solving the time-dependent Schroedinger equation with the 1D and 2D potentials, which we propose, are compared with the results of the ab initio three-dimensional calculations for the H atom. We find the regions of laser pulse parameters, where the results obtained with proposed models have much better accuracy than the results provided by the models used earlier. Acknowledgements. This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Presidential Council on Grants of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, and the Dynasty Foundation.