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The electron of a H 2 + driven by a strong electromagnetic field induces molecular vibrations. Numerical and analytical results show that the molecule behaves as a parametric oscillator and can be treated as a kicked oscillator. The results are discussed from the point of view of the electron's periodic dressing and undressing processes.

The dynamics of a homonuclear diatomic molecule driven by a laser pulse is obtained beyond the fixed nuclei approximation. Laser parameters can be adjusted to confine the electron over one of the two nuclei for a relatively long time or not. A time-resolved analysis of the electromagnetic spectrum emitted by the molecule presents the usual odd harmonics far from confinement and even harmonics during the confinement periods. A physical interpretation of the results is given.

The problem of relativistic causality in the time-dependent three-body Casimir–Polder interaction energy between three atoms, initially in their bare ground-state, is discussed. It is shown that the non-locality of the spatial correlations of the electromagnetic field emitted by the atoms during their dynamical self-dressing may become manifest in the dynamical three-body Casimir–Polder interaction energy between the three atoms.

We discuss the physical properties of a noninteracting electron gas constrained to a spherical surface. In particular we consider its chemical potentials, its ionization potential, and its electric static polarizability. All these properties are discussed analytically as functions of the number $N$ of electrons. The trends obtained with increasing $N$ are compared with those of the corresponding properties experimentally measured or theoretically evaluated for quasispherical hollow atomic and molecular clusters. Most of the properties investigated display similar trends, characterized by a prominence of shell effects. This leads to the definition of a scale-invariant distribution of magic numbers which follows a power law with critical exponent $\ensuremath{-}0.5$. We conclude that our completely mechanistic and analytically tractable model can be useful for the analysis of self-assembling complex systems.

In this paper we discuss isotopic effects in simple molecular ions subjected to strong laser fields. We show that the intensity of the emitted spectra strongly depends upon both the nuclear mass of the molecular ions and the laser pulse duration. In particular, for short pulse duration [up to 8 optical cycles (o.c.)], we confirm the trend described in the most studied case in which the high-order harmonic generation is more efficient for heavier isotopes; in contrast, an interesting physical phenomenon is predicted for pulses longer than 16 o.c. characterized by an inverse effect in which lighter molecular species are responsible for higher-order harmonic emission.

We show that it is possible to use a piecewise constant Hamiltonian to describe the main features of the dynamics of an atom interacting with a laser field. In particular we show that using this approximation we are able to give a good description of the ionization signal, of the HHG spectra and of the attosecond pulses generated by the radiating electron. Finally, we give an explicit formula to evaluate the ionization rate in the time dependent laser field. This formula, which is a generalization of the Landau formula for the ionization rate of an atom in a static electric field, fairly well reproduces the numerical ionization rates for a broad range of laser frequency and intensity. The main advantage of this formula is that it can be used well beyond the limits of the quasi-static formula for the ionization rate of an atom.

A new scheme to generate isolated attosecond pulses is presented that involves the use of a laser field and of a unipolar field. The laser field has a pulse of intensity I = 1.5×1014 W cm−2 and wavelength λ = 820 nm. The unipolar pulse is an asymmetric pulse consisting of a sharp peak, lasting approximately half a laser period, i.e. nearly 1.4 fs, followed by a long and shallow tail. We show that on combining these two fields, it is possible to generate isolated attosecond pulses as short as 1/10 of a laser period, i.e. approximately 270 as. Moreover, it is argued that this scheme is robust either against small variations of the laser envelope, or against small changes in the delay between the laser pump and the unipolar pulse.

We study the dynamics of an electron constrained over the surface of a rigid sphere, with geometrical parameters similar to those of the C60 fullerene, embedded in a low intensity linearly polarized laser field. The model is shown to emit odd harmonics of the laser even at very low field intensity. For more intense laser fields, the spectrum presents odd harmonics and hyper-Raman lines shaped in a broad plateau. The spectrum of the model is compared to that theoretically obtained by other authors for more realistic models of C60. It is concluded that the model can be used as a paradigm for mesoscopic molecules in the fullerene family, particularly in practical applications where it is convenient to have a simple model of fullerene molecules. It is also concluded that the model is an example lending support to the concept of universality introduced by other authors some time ago.

We propose a new scheme to produce isolated attosecond pulses, involving the use of three laser pulses: a fundamental laser field of intensity I = 3.5 × 1014 W cm−2 and of wavelength λ = 820 nm, and two properly chosen weak lasers with wavelengths 1.5λ and 0.5λ. The three lasers have a Gaussian envelope of 36 fs full width at half maximum. The resulting total field is an asymmetric electric field with an isolated peak. We show that a model atom, interacting with the above-defined total field, generates an isolated attosecond pulse as short as 1/10 of a laser period, i.e. approximately 270 as.

We study the single and double ionization yields and the dissociation dynamics of a one-dimensional two-electron molecule exposed to a laser pulse of intensity IL in the range 1013 − 1015 W/cm2 and photon energy hω¯L =3.18 eV. The calculations are carried out in the case of both fixed and movable nuclei. At low IL the ionization curves have a power law shape In that is interrupted by a knee at higher intensity.