arXiv subjects

Alejandro Saenz

Publications and source records attributed to Alejandro Saenz.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Two-channel Bose-Hubbard model of atoms at a Feshbach resonance

Based on the analytic model of Feshbach resonances in harmonic traps described in Phys. Rev. A 83, 030701 (2011) a Bose-Hubbard model is introduced that provides an accurate description of two atoms in an optical lattice at a Feshbach resonance with only a small number of Bloch bands. The approach circumvents the problem that the eigenenergies in the presence of a delta-like coupling do not converge to the correct energies, if an uncorrelated basis is used. The predictions of the Bose-Hubbard model are compared to non-perturbative calculations for both the stationary states and the time-dependent wavefunction during an acceleration of the lattice potential. For this purpose, a square-well interaction potential is introduced, which allows for a realistic description of Feshbach resonances within non-perturbative single-channel calculations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Non-perturbative theoretical description of two atoms in an optical lattice with time-dependent perturbations

A theoretical approach for a non-perturbative dynamical description of two interacting atoms in an optical lattice potential is introduced. The approach builds upon the stationary eigenstates found by a procedure described in Grishkevich et al. [Phys. Rev. A 84, 062710 (2011)]. It allows presently to treat any time-dependent external perturbation of the lattice potential up to quadratic order. Example calculations of the experimentally relevant cases of an acceleration of the lattice and the turning-on of an additional harmonic confinement are presented.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Matrix algorithm for solving Schroedinger equations with position-dependent mass or complex optical potentials

We represent low dimensional quantum mechanical Hamiltonians by moderately sized finite matrices that reproduce the lowest O(10) boundstate energies and wave functions to machine precision. The method extends also to Hamiltonians that are neither Hermitian nor PT symmetric and thus allows to investigate whether or not the spectra in such cases are still real. Furthermore, the approach is especially useful for problems in which a position-dependent mass is adopted, for example in effective-mass models in solid-state physics or in the approximate treatment of coupled nuclear motion in molecular physics or quantum chemistry. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated by considering the inversion motion of different isotopes of ammonia molecules within a position-dependent-mass model and some other examples of one- and two-dimensional Hamiltonians that allow for the comparison to analytical or numerical results in the literature.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Quantum computation with ultracold atoms in a driven optical lattice

We propose a scheme for quantum computation in optical lattices. The qubits are encoded in the spacial wavefunction of the atoms such that spin decoherence does not influence the computation. Quantum operations are steered by shaking the lattice while qubit addressability can be provided with experimentally available techniques of changing the lattice with single-site resolution. Numerical calculations show possible fidelities above 99% with gate times on the order of milliseconds.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Water Molecules in Ultrashort Intense Laser Fields

Ionization and excitation of water molecules in intense laser pulses is studied theoretically by solving the three-dimensional time-dependent electronic Schrödinger equation within the single-active-electron approximation. The possibility to image orbital densities by measurement of the orientation-dependent ionization of H2O in few-cycle, 800nm linear-polarized laser pulses is investigated. While the highest-occupied molecular orbital 1b1 is found to dominate the overall ionization behavior, contributions from the energetically lower lying 3a1 orbital dominate the ionization yield in the nodal plane of the 1b1 orbital. The ratio of the ionization yields of the two orbitals depends on the intensity. Furthermore, even for laser pulses as long as 8 cycles the orientation-dependent ion yield depends on the carrier-envelope phase. In the interpretation of the orientation-dependent ionization as an imaging tool these effects have to be considered.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2011

Inelastic Confinement-Induced Resonances in Low-Dimensional Quantum Systems

A theoretical model is presented describing the confinement-induced resonances observed in the recent loss experiment of Haller et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 153203 (2010)]. These resonances originate from possible molecule formation due to the coupling of center-of-mass and relative motion. A corresponding model is verified by ab initio calculations and predicts the resonance positions in 1D as well as in 2D confinement in agreement with the experiment. This resolves the contradiction of the experimental observations to previous theoretical predictions.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2011

Theoretical description of two ultracold atoms in finite 3D optical lattices using realistic interatomic interaction potentials

A theoretical approach is described for an exact numerical treatment of a pair of ultracold atoms interacting via a central potential that are trapped in a finite three-dimensional optical lattice. The coupling of center-of-mass and relative-motion coordinates is treated using an exact diagonalization (configuration-interaction) approach. The orthorhombic symmetry of an optical lattice with three different but orthogonal lattice vectors is explicitly considered as is the Fermionic or Bosonic symmetry in the case of indistinguishable particles.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2011

Strong field ionization to multiple electronic states in water

High harmonic spectra show that laser-induced strong field ionization of water has a significant contribution from an inner-valence orbital. Our experiment uses the ratio of H2O and D2O high harmonic yields to isolate the characteristic nuclear motion of the molecular ionic states. The nuclear motion initiated via ionization of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) is small and is expected to lead to similar harmonic yields for the two isotopes. In contrast, ionization of the second least bound orbital (HOMO-1) exhibits itself via a strong bending motion which creates a significant isotope effect. We elaborate on this interpretation by simulating strong field ionization and high harmonic generation from the water isotopes using the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. We expect that this isotope marking scheme for probing excited ionic states in strong field processes can be generalized to other molecules.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2011

Solution of the time-dependent Dirac equation for describing multiphoton ionization of highly-charged hydrogenlike ions

A theoretical study of the intense-field multiphoton ionization of hydrogenlike systems is performed by solving the time-dependent Dirac equation within the dipole approximation. It is shown that the velocity-gauge results agree to the ones in length gauge only if the negative-energy states are included in the time propagation. On the other hand, for the considered laser parameters, no significant difference is found in length gauge if the negative-energy states are included or not. Within the adopted dipole approximation the main relativistic effect is the shift of the ionization potential. A simple scaling procedure is proposed to account for this effect.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Feshbach resonances of harmonically trapped atoms

Employing a short-range two-channel description we derive an analytic model of atoms in isotropic and anisotropic harmonic traps at a Feshbach resonance. On this basis we obtain a new parameterization of the energy-dependent scattering length which differs from the one previously employed. We validate the model by comparison to full numerical calculations for Li-Rb and explain quantitatively the experimental observation of a resonance shift and trap-induced molecules in exited bands. Finally, we analyze the bound state admixture and Landau-Zener transition probabilities.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2010

Accurate photoionisation cross section for He at non-resonant photon energies

The total single-photon ionisation cross section was calculated for helium atoms in their ground state. Using a full configuration-interaction approach the photoionisation cross section was extracted from the complex-scaled resolvent. In the energy range from ionisation threshold to 59\,eV our results agree with an earlier $B$-spline based calculation in which the continuum is box discretised within a relative error of $0.01\%$ in the non-resonant part of the spectrum. Above the $\He^{++}$ threshold our results agree on the other hand very well to a recent Floquet calculation. Thus our calculation confirms the previously reported deviations from the experimental reference data outside the claimed error estimate. In order to extend the calculated spectrum to very high energies, an analytical hydrogenic-type model tail is introduced that should become asymptotically exact for infinite photon energies. Its universality is investigated considering also H$^-$, Li$^+$, and HeH$^+$. With the aid of the tail corrections to the dipole approximation are estimated.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2010

Frustrated collisions and unconventional pairing on a quantum superlattice

We solve the problem of scattering and binding of two spin-1/2 fermions on a one-dimensional superlattice with a period of twice the lattice spacing analytically. We find the exact bound states and the scattering states, consisting of a generalized Bethe ansatz augmented with an extra scattering product due to "asymptotic" degeneracy. If a Bloch band is doubly occupied, the extra wave can be a bound state in the continuum corresponding to a single-particle interband transition. In all other cases, it corresponds to a quasi-momentum changing, frustrated collision.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Alignment-Dependent Ionization of N$_2$, O$_2$, and CO$_2$ in Intense Laser Fields

The ionization probability of N$_2$, O$_2$, and CO$_2$ in intense laser fields is studied theoretically as a function of the alignment angle by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation numerically assuming only the single-active-electron approximation. The results are compared to recent experimental data [D.~Pavi{č}i{ć} et al., Phys.\,Rev.\,Lett.\ {\bf 98}, 243001 (2007)] and good agreement is found for N$_2$ and O$_2$. For CO$_2$ a possible explanation is provided for the failure of simplified single-active-electron models to reproduce the experimentally observed narrow ionization distribution. It is based on a field-induced coherent core-trapping effect.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2010

Break-down of the single-active-electron approximation for one-photon ionization of the B $^1Σ_u^+$ state of H$_2$ exposed to intense laser fields

Ionization, excitation, and de-excitation to the ground state is studied theoretically for the first excited singlet state B $^1Σ_u^+$ of H$_2$ exposed to intense laser fields with photon energies in between about 3 eV and 13 eV. A parallel orientation of a linear polarized laser and the molecular axis is considered. Within the dipole and the fixed-nuclei approximations the time-dependent Schrödinger equation describing the electronic motion is solved in full dimensionality and compared to simpler models. A dramatic break-down of the single-active-electron approximation is found and explained to be due to the inadequate description of the final continuum states.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2009

Final-State Spectrum of $^3$He after $β^-$ Decay of Tritium Anions T$^-$

The final-state spectrum of $β$ decaying tritium anions T$^-$ was calculated. The wavefunctions describing the initial T$^-$ ground state and the final $^3$He states were obtained by the full configuration-interaction method. The transition probability was calculated within the sudden approximation. The transition probability into the electronic continuum is extracted from the complex-scaled resolvent and is shown to converge for very high-energies to an approximate analytical model probability distribution.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2009

Full two-electron calculations of antiproton collisions with molecular hydrogen

Total cross sections for single ionization and excitation of molecular hydrogen by antiproton impact are presented over a wide range of impact energy from 1 keV to 6.5 MeV. A nonpertubative time-dependent close-coupling method is applied to fully treat the correlated dynamics of the electrons. Good agreement is obtained between the present calculations and experimental measurements of single-ionization cross sections at high energies, whereas some discrepancies with the experiment are found around the maximum. The importance of the molecular geometry and a full two-electron description is demonstrated. The present findings provide benchmark results which might be useful for the development of molecular models.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2009

Two-channel model of photoassociation in the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance

We derive the two-channel (TC) description of the photoassociation (PA) process in the presence of a magnetic Feshbach resonance and compare to full coupled multi-channel calculations for the scattering of $^{6}$Li-$^{87}$Rb. Previously derived results [P. Pellegrini et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 053201 (2008)] are corrected. The PA process is shown to be fully described by two parameters: the maximal transition rate and the point of vanishing transition rate. The TC approximation reproduces excellently the PA transition rates of the full multi-channel calculation and reveals, e.g., that the enhancement of the rate at a resonance is directly connected to the position of vanishing rate. For the description of two independent resonances it was found that only three parameters completely characterize the PA process.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2009

Mimicking multi-channel scattering with single-channel approaches

The collision of two atoms is an intrinsic multi-channel (MC) problem as becomes especially obvious in the presence of Feshbach resonances. Due to its complexity, however, single-channel (SC) approximations, which reproduce the long-range behavior of the open channel, are often applied in calculations. In this work the complete MC problem is solved numerically for the magnetic Feshbach resonances (MFRs) in collisions between generic ultracold 6Li and 87Rb atoms in the ground state and in the presence of a static magnetic field B. The obtained MC solutions are used to test various existing as well as presently developed SC approaches. It was found that many aspects even at short internuclear distances are qualitatively well reflected. This can be used to investigate molecular processes in the presence of an external trap or in many-body systems that can be feasibly treated only within the framework of the SC approximation. The applicability of various SC approximations is tested for a transition to the absolute vibrational ground state around an MFR. The conformance of the SC approaches is explained by the two-channel approximation for the MFR.

physics.atom-ph↗