Qprop: A Schrödinger-solver for intense laser-atom interaction

The Qprop package is presented. Qprop has been developed to study laser-atom interaction in the nonperturbative regime where nonlinear phenomena such as above-threshold ionization, high order harmonic generation, and dynamic stabilization are known to occur. In the nonrelativistic regime and within the single active electron approximation, these phenomena can be studied with Qprop in the most rigorous way by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation in three spatial dimensions. Because Qprop is optimized for the study of quantum systems that are spherically symmetric in their initial, unperturbed configuration, all wavefunctions are expanded in spherical harmonics. Time-propagation of the wavefunctions is performed using a split-operator approach. Photoelectron spectra are calculated employing a window-operator technique. Besides the solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation in single active electron approximation, Qprop allows to study many-electron systems via the solution of the time-dependent Kohn-Sham equations.

Program summary

Program title:QPROPCatalogue number:ADXBProgram summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADXBProgram obtainable from:CPC Program Library, Queen's University of Belfast, N. IrelandComputer on which program has been tested:PC Pentium IV, AthlonOperating system:LinuxProgram language used:C++Memory required to execute with typical data:Memory requirements depend on the number of propagated orbitals and on the size of the orbitals. For instance, time-propagation of a hydrogenic wavefunction in the perturbative regime requires about 64 KB RAM (4 radial orbitals with 1000 grid points). Propagation in the strongly nonperturbative regime providing energy spectra up to high energies may need 60 radial orbitals, each with 30000 grid points, i.e. about 30 MB. Examples are given in the article.No. of bits in a word:Real and complex valued numbers of double precision are usedNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.:69 995No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 2 927 567Peripheral used:Disk for input-output, terminal for interaction with the userCPU time required to execute test data:Execution time depends on the size of the propagated orbitals and the number of time-stepsDistribution format:tar.gzNature of the physical problem:Atoms put into the strong field of modern lasers display a wealth of novel phenomena that are not accessible to conventional perturbation theory where the external field is considered small as compared to inneratomic forces. Hence, the full ab initio solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation is desirable but in full dimensionality only feasible for no more than two (active) electrons. If many-electron effects come into play or effective ground state potentials are needed, (time-dependent) density functional theory may be employed. Qprop aims at providing tools for (i) the time-propagation of the wavefunction according to the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, (ii) the time-propagation of Kohn-Sham orbitals according to the time-dependent Kohn-Sham equations, and (iii) the energy-analysis of the final one-electron wavefunction (or the Kohn-Sham orbitals).Method of solution:An expansion of the wavefunction in spherical harmonics leads to a coupled set of equations for the radial wavefunctions. These radial wavefunctions are propagated using a split-operator technique and the Crank-Nicolson approximation for the short-time propagator. The initial ground state is obtained via imaginary time-propagation for spherically symmetric (but otherwise arbitrary) effective potentials. Excited states can be obtained through the combination of imaginary time-propagation and orthogonalization. For the Kohn-Sham scheme a multipole expansion of the effective potential is employed. Wavefunctions can be analyzed using the window-operator technique, facilitating the calculation of electron spectra, either angular-resolved or integratedRestrictions onto the complexity of the problem:The coupling of the atom to the external field is treated in dipole approximation. The time-dependent Schrödinger solver is restricted to the treatment of a single active electron. As concerns the time-dependent density functional mode of Qprop, the Hartree-potential (accounting for the classical electron-electron repulsion) is expanded up to the quadrupole. Only the monopole term of the Krieger-Li-Iafrate exchange potential is currently implemented. As in any nontrivial optimization problem, convergence to the optimal many-electron state (i.e. the ground state) is not automatically guaranteedExternal routines/libraries used:The program uses the well established libraries blas, lapack, and f2c