Hydrogen atom in a laser-plasma

Babatunde J. Falaye, Guo Hua Sun, Muhammed S. Liman, K. J. Oyewumi, Shi Hai Dong

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

We scrutinize the behaviour of the eigenvalues of a hydrogen atom in a quantum plasma as it interacts with an electric field directed along θ = π and is exposed to linearly polarized intense laser field radiation. We refer to the interaction of the plasma with the laser light as laser-plasma. Using the Kramers-Henneberger (KH) unitary transformation, which is the semiclassical counterpart of the Block-Nordsieck transformation in the quantized field formalism, the squared vector potential that appears in the equation of motion is eliminated and the resultant equation is expressed in the KH frame. Within this frame, the resulting potential and the corresponding wavefunction have been expanded in Fourier series, and using Ehlotzky's approximation we obtain a laser-dressed potential to simulate an intense laser field. By fitting the exponential-cosine-screened Coulomb potential into the laser-dressed potential, and then expanding it in Taylor series up to , we obtain the eigensolution (eigenvalues and wavefunction) of the hydrogen atom in laser-plasma encircled by an electric field, within the framework of perturbation theory formalism. Our numerical results show that for a weak external electric field and a very large Debye screening parameter length, the system is strongly repulsive, in contrast with the case for a strong external electric field and a small Debye screening parameter length, when the system is very attractive. This work has potential applications in the areas of atomic and molecular processes in external fields, including interactions with strong fields and short pulses.

Original languageEnglish
Article number116003
JournalLaser Physics Letters
Volume13
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2016

Keywords

  • hydrogen atom
  • laser field radiation
  • perturbation technique
  • quantum plasmas

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