Raman Processes in the Helium Atom in Intense Fields

Abstract

Using the hydrogenic model for the helium atom, the amplitude of transition from states He(ls) to He(ls, nl) by absorption of N photons of an intense field together with the emission of one Raman photon is evaluated. From the general expression for the transition amplitude, the particular case of transition from He(ls) to He(ls, 2p) is considered. The 'reduced' transition amplitude is plotted against the number of photons N involved and against the intensity parameter y st;parately. It is found that the s wave contributes maximaly to the transition amplitude. An important feature of the calculations is the appearance of nonlinear behaviour at high intensity. The dominance of higher order processes over lower ones at high intensity is also found.