How periodic orbit bifurcations drive multiphoton ionization

Abstract

The multiphoton ionization of hydrogen by a strong bichromatic microwave field is a complex process prototypical for atomic control research. Periodic orbit analysis captures this complexity: Through the stability of periodic orbits we can match qualitatively the variation of experimental ionization rates with a control parameter, the relative phase between the two modes of the field. Moreover, an empirical formula reproduces quantum simulations to a high degree of accuracy. This quantitative agreement shows how short periodic orbits organize the dynamics in multiphoton ionization.

4 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Control of trapped-ion quantum states with optical pulses
• Reducing or enhancing chaos using periodic orbits

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Bifurcations as dissociation mechanism in bichromatically driven diatomic molecules
• Bichromatically driven double well: parametric perspective of the strong-field control landscape reveals the influence of chaotic states
• Periodic orbit bifurcations as an ionization mechanism: The bichromatically driven hydrogen atom