22 Novembre – Thesis defense - Alex Clergerie
14 h Amphi Wegener / Building A22 (Talence campus)
Molecular spectroscopy modeling by attosecond electron wave paquet.
On the basis of previous numerical simulations for atomic targets, we develop a model to describe high-order harmonic generation in molecules subjected to short and intense laser pulses. In this process, an electron wavepacket launched through ionization is driven by the field and comes back to the molecular ionic core that it probes on the attosecond timescale. Our model, to which we refer to as molCTMC-QUEST, describes ionization and electron propagation into the continuum classically, in terms of electron trajectories, while photorecombination is described quantum mechanically. We present the methodology that we have built, and we later apply it to harmonic generation in water molecules. After simulations in which the molecules remain frozen in their equilibrium geometry throughout the interaction, we explicitly take into account nuclear vibration between ionization and recombination. molCTMC-QUEST provides a quantitative description of the generation process combined with an intuitive picture of the interaction inherent in the classical description of electron dynamics.
