Atoms in Intense Laser Fields

Aimed at graduate students in atomic, molecular and optical physics, along with researchers working on laser interactions with matter, this book presents a unified account of the rapidly developing field of high-intensity laser-atom interactions. It discusses a range of topics including Floquet theory and the main multiphoton processes.

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The development of lasers capable of producing high-intensity pulses has opened a new area in the study of light-matter interactions. The corresponding laser fields are strong enough to compete with the Coulomb forces in controlling the dynamics of atomic systems and give rise to multiphoton processes. This book presents a unified account of this rapidly developing field of physics. The first part describes the fundamental phenomena occurring in intense laser-atom interactions and gives the basic theoretical framework to analyze them. The second part contains a detailed discussion of Floquet theory, the numerical integration of the wave equations and approximation methods for the low- and high-frequency regimes. In the third part, the main multiphoton processes are discussed: multiphoton ionization, high harmonic and attosecond pulse generation, and laser-assisted electron-atom collisions. Aimed at graduate students in atomic, molecular and optical physics, the book will also interest researchers working on laser interactions with matter.