High-order harmonic generation from an atom in a disordered environment
Abstract
Using one-dimensional simulations analyzed through the lens of open quantum systems, we study a photoelectron’s strong-field dynamics from an atom surrounded by a structurally disordered scattering environment, described by an ensemble of stochastically sampled configurations, with parameters chosen to be representative of liquid helium. We theoretically investigate high-order harmonic generation from this situation. We show that local dephasing of the photoelectron wavepacket induced by elastic scattering leads to global decoherence. This drives a transition from quantum to classical behavior, as witnessed by the localization of the photoelectron probability density around specific trajectories of the classical analog system: unstable periodic orbits. This phenomenon mirrors quantum scars traditionally observed in the eigenfunctions of time-independent systems such as quantum billiards. Here, it emerges in situ within a time-dependent framework, manifesting directly in the real-time dynamics from the ground state rather than solely through spectral analysis. We further verify that these effects are robust to the strength and sign of the scattering potential, confirming that they extend beyond the specific case of liquid helium.
Versions
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BibTeX
@article{his2026highorder,
title = {{High-order harmonic generation from an atom in a disordered environment}},
author = {Simon His and Camille Lévêque and Jérémie Caillat and Richard Taïeb and Jonathan Dubois},
journal = {The Journal of Chemical Physics},
year = {2026},
month = may,
doi = {10.1063/5.0346384},
eprint = {2605.21223},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05741513v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - High-order harmonic generation from an atom in a disordered environment
AU - Simon His
AU - Camille Lévêque
AU - Jérémie Caillat
AU - Richard Taïeb
AU - Jonathan Dubois
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/20
JO - The Journal of Chemical Physics
DO - 10.1063/5.0346384
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05741513v1
AB - Using one-dimensional simulations analyzed through the lens of open quantum systems, we study a photoelectron’s strong-field dynamics from an atom surrounded by a structurally disordered scattering environment, described by an ensemble of stochastically sampled configurations, with parameters chosen to be representative of liquid helium. We theoretically investigate high-order harmonic generation from this situation. We show that local dephasing of the photoelectron wavepacket induced by elastic scattering leads to global decoherence. This drives a transition from quantum to classical behavior, as witnessed by the localization of the photoelectron probability density around specific trajectories of the classical analog system: unstable periodic orbits. This phenomenon mirrors quantum scars traditionally observed in the eigenfunctions of time-independent systems such as quantum billiards. Here, it emerges in situ within a time-dependent framework, manifesting directly in the real-time dynamics from the ground state rather than solely through spectral analysis. We further verify that these effects are robust to the strength and sign of the scattering potential, confirming that they extend beyond the specific case of liquid helium.
SN - 0021-9606
SN - 1089-7690
ER -