Generation of Rydberg states of hydrogen atoms with intense laser pulses: The roles of Coulomb force and initial lateral momentum

We investigate the generation of Rydberg states of hydrogen atoms with intense laser pulses by solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation and by means of classical-trajectory Monte Carlo simulations. Both linearly polarized multicycle pulses and pairs of optical half-cycle pulses are used. Comparisons between these methods show that both the Coulomb force and initial lateral momentum, which have effects on the n distribution and l distribution of the population of excited states, are important in the generation of Rydberg states.