Correlated Electron Dynamics in Few-body Systems

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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.