Quantum path control in the presence of a half-cycle pulse to generate isolated attosecond pulse

ABSTRACT

Quantum path control on the harmonic emission from hydrogen molecular ion is investigated via combining an intense few-cycle laser and a half-cycle pulse (HCP). The results show that the quantum paths of returning electrons can be effectively modified due to the introduction of the HCP which extremely dominates the acceleration process of ionized electron. With the favorable conditions, the long quantum path is completely eliminated and an isolated 61 as pulse can be obtained by superposing proper harmonics. Moreover, the electron wave packet distributions and the double-well model are presented to explore the underlying physical mechanism.

KEYWORDS:

• Half-cycle pulse
• isolated attosecond
• pulse
• quantum path control

Acknowledgment

The authors sincerely thank Prof. Keli Han and Dr. Ruifeng Lu for providing us the LZH-DICP code.