Correlated Electron Dynamics in Few-body Systems

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案资助的（公法111-5）21世纪世纪头几年，激光技术和计算能力的进步使人们进入了一个全新的领域，在这个领域，原子或分子的内部运作--即电子的复杂关联舞蹈--可以在真实的时间内被捕获和操纵。这种新的激光技术的一个例子是产生持续时间小于100阿秒的激光脉冲（1阿秒=一秒的五分之一）。这种脉冲提供了解决量子力学和原子分子物理学中一些基本问题的工具，例如电子相互影响的时间尺度，或者原子或分子中电子之间的能量转移需要多长时间。该项目将通过开发和应用先进的数值模拟技术来解决这些问题，以研究氦原子和氢分子与超短激光脉冲的相互作用。特别是，该项目将分析原子和分子中相关电子运动的三个关键例子，即如何在时间上解决（a）强场双电离中的子循环激发态动力学，（B）分子中激光驱动的相关电子动力学，以及（c）双光电离中的相关电子发射。数值模拟的结果将为世界范围内的实验提供理论支持。一个研究生将受益于不同的指导和榜样。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Advances in laser technology and computing power that have been made in the first few years of the 21st century allow one to enter a fundamentally new regime, where the inner workings of an atom or molecule - that is the complex, correlated dance of electrons - can be captured and manipulated in real time. An example of this new laser technology is the generation of laser pulses of less than 100 attoseconds in duration (1 as = one quintillionth of a second). Such pulses provide the tool to tackle some fundamental questions in quantum mechanics and atomic and molecular physics, such as on what time scale electrons influence each other, or how much time it takes for energy transfer between the electrons in an atom or molecule. The project will address these questions by developing and applying advanced numerical simulation techniques, to study the interaction of a helium atom and a hydrogen molecule with ultrashort laser pulses. In particular, the project will analyze three key examples of correlated electron motion in atoms and molecules, namely how to temporally resolve (a) the sub-cycle excited state dynamics in strong-field double ionization, (b) the laser-driven correlated electron dynamics in a molecule, and (c) the correlated electron emission in double photoionization. The results of numerical simulations will provide theoretical support for experiments performed worldwide.A graduate student will benefit from diverse mentoring and role models.