On the adiabatic approximation for the laser-dressed atom

Abstract

The adiabatic approximation is analyzed for non-perturbative interaction of an atomic system with an intense low-frequency laser field. We find that the well-known adiabatic ansatz, which consists in using the DC-based Green's and wave functions for an atom in the instantaneous AC field to calculate transition matrix elements, exceeds the level of accuracy of the adiabatic approximation and requires further theoretical revision. It is shown that the non-analyticity in the field strength of the DC-based Green's and wave functions leads to violation of the adiabaticity constrains and the appearance of rapidly oscillating components in the transition matrix elements. We suggest an improved adiabatic approach utilizing the analytical parts in the DC-based Green's and wave functions. We illustrate our revised adiabatic approach for analysis of atomic polarizability in two-component laser field with an intense infrared and perturbative extreme ultraviolet components within the zero-range potential model.