Controlling Rydberg excitation process with shaped intense ultrashort laser pulses*

Abstract

We perform a theoretical investigation on the control over the atomic excitation of Rydberg states with shaped intense ultrashort laser pulses. By numerically solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE), we systematically study the dependence of the population of the Rydberg states on the π phase step position in the frequency spectra of the laser pulse for different intensities, central wavelengths and pulse durations. Our results show that the Rydberg excitation process can be effectively modulated using shaped intense laser pulses with the laser intensity as high as 1×1014 W/cm2. Our work also have benefit to the future investigation to find out the dominant mechanism behind the excitation of Rydberg states in strong laser fields.