Tailoring optical Schrödinger cat states via orientation-dependent high-harmonic generation in H2+
Abstract
We theoretically demonstrate that the molecular orientation angle θ provides a structurally intrinsic, continuously tunable control parameter for engineering optical Schrödinger cat states via high-harmonic generation (HHG) in H2+. Coupling time-dependent Schrödinger equation simulations to the fully quantized HHG framework, we evaluate the Wigner functions of the post-selected harmonic-mode states under two complementary conditioning strategies. Conditioning on resonance-enhanced low-order harmonics exploits the complementary dipole selection rules of the 1σg→1σu and 1σg→1πu transitions, driving a kitten-cat crossover whose direction is opposite in the two channels as θ is varied. Conditioning on plateau harmonics instead exploits two-center destructive interference, producing a reentrant cat→kitten→cat transition controlled by the order-dependent interference angle θ*(q). In both cases the crossover is decoupled from the laser intensity, focal geometry, and molecular density, offering a degree of control with no counterpart in atomic targets.
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BibTeX
@misc{gan2026tailoring,
title = {{Tailoring optical Schrödinger cat states via orientation-dependent high-harmonic generation in $\rmH_2^+$}},
author = {Ziyang Gan and Ahai Chen and Yuhai Jiang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.21248},
eprint = {2607.21248},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.21248},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Tailoring optical Schrödinger cat states via orientation-dependent high-harmonic generation in H_2^+
AU - Ziyang Gan
AU - Ahai Chen
AU - Yuhai Jiang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/03
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.21248
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.21248
AB - We theoretically demonstrate that the molecular orientation angle θ provides a structurally intrinsic, continuously tunable control parameter for engineering optical Schrödinger cat states via high-harmonic generation (HHG) in H_2^+. Coupling time-dependent Schrödinger equation simulations to the fully quantized HHG framework, we evaluate the Wigner functions of the post-selected harmonic-mode states under two complementary conditioning strategies. Conditioning on resonance-enhanced low-order harmonics exploits the complementary dipole selection rules of the 1σ_g→1σ_u and 1σ_g→1π_u transitions, driving a kitten-cat crossover whose direction is opposite in the two channels as θ is varied. Conditioning on plateau harmonics instead exploits two-center destructive interference, producing a reentrant cat→kitten→cat transition controlled by the order-dependent interference angle θ^*(q). In both cases the crossover is decoupled from the laser intensity, focal geometry, and molecular density, offering a degree of control with no counterpart in atomic targets.
ER -