Few-photon induced breakup of helium is studied using a newly developed ab initio numerical framework for solving the six-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation. We present details of the method and calculate (generalized) cross sections for the process of two-photon nonsequential (direct) double ionization at photon energies ranging from 39.4 to 54.4 eV, a process that has been very much debated in recent years and is not yet fully understood. In particular, we have studied the convergence property of the total cross section in the vicinity of the upper threshold (∼54.4 eV), versus the pulse duration of the applied laser field. We find that the cross section exhibits an increasing trend near the threshold, as has also been observed by others, and show that this rise cannot solely be attributed to an unintended inclusion of the sequential two-photon double ionization process, caused by the bandwidth of the applied field.

We investigate the impact of electron-electron correlation on the ionization dynamics of helium in intense, high-frequency laser fields by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation from first principles. Although we observe a decrease in the total ionization yield at high field strengths, the hallmark of atomic stabilization, the repulsion between the electrons has a detrimental effect on the degree of stabilization, in particular for short pulses. Investigation of the ion channel yields reveals that the double ionization process is less prone to two-electron effects, and consequently exhibits the most distinct signature of stabilization. We also find that commonly used one-dimensional models tend to overestimate the effect of correlation.

The energy levels of laterally coupled parabolic double quantum dots are calculated for varying interdot distances. Electron-electron interaction is shown to dominate the spectra: In the diatomic molecule limit of large interdot separation, the two nearly degenerate singlet and triplet ground states are followed by a narrow band of four singlet and four triplet states. The energy spacing between the ground state and the first band of excited states scales directly with the confinement strength of the quantum wells. Similar level separation and band structure are found when the double dot is exposed to a perpendicular magnetic field. Conversely, an electric field parallel to the interdot direction results in a strong level mixing and a narrow transition from a localized state to a covalent diatomic molecular state.

We present a new algorithm for vibrational control in deuterium molecules that is feasible with current experimental technology. A pump mechanism is used for creating a coherent superposition of the D + 2 vibrations. A short, intense infrared control pulse is applied after a chosen delay time to create selective interferences. A 'chessboard' pattern of states can be realized in which a set of even-or odd-numbered vibrational states can be selectively annihilated or enhanced. A technique is proposed for experimental realization and observation of this effect using 5 fs pulses of λ = 790 nm radiation, with intermediate intensity (5 × 10 13 W cm −2 ).