Role of laser-driven electron-multirescattering in resonance-enhanced below-threshold harmonic generation in He atoms

Abstract

We present an ab initio investigation of the below-threshold harmonic generation of helium (He) atoms in few-cycle infrared laser fields by accurately solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation and Maxwell's equation simultaneously. We find that the enhancement of the below-threshold harmonic generation only occurs to near the resonance structure of He, for which this mechanism is in agreement with the recent experimental study [M. Chini et al., Nat. Photonics 8, 437 (2014)]. Moreover, we perform the quantum and semiclassical trajectories analysis, including both the atomic potential and the laser field, as well as the synchrosqueezed transform of the harmonic spectra. Our results reveal that several multirescattering trajectories contribute to the resonance-enhanced below-threshold harmonic generation.