A Time-Dependent Approach to High-Resolution Photoabsorption Spectrum of Rydberg Atoms in Magnetic Fields

Abstract

A robust time-dependent approach to the high-resolution photoabsorption spectrum of Rydberg atoms in magnetic fields is presented. Traditionally we have to numerically diagonalize a huge matrix to solve the eigen-problem and then to obtain the spectral information. This matrix operation requires high-speed computers with large memories. Alternatively we present a unitary but very easily parallelized time-evolution method in an inexpensive way, which is very accurate and stable even in long-time scale evolution. With this method, we perform the spectral calculation of hydrogen atom in magnetic field, which agrees well with the experimental observation. It can be extended to study the dynamics of Rydberg atoms in more complicated cases such as in combined electric and magnetic fields.