Computational Modelling of Neon High-Harmonic Generation

High-Harmonic Generation (HHG) is a process to generate coherent high-frequency XUV light using a visible-light laser. The process starts by removing an electron from its valence shell. Once the electron has escaped the shell, the electric field produced by the pulse causes the electron to accelerate. After acceleration, the electron recombines with the original atom, releasing the kinetic energy it gained during acceleration as a high energy photon. This creates a spectrum of high-order odd harmonics. We investigate HHG from Ne+ ions. These ions have been proposed as a source of HHG light seen in experiment, but these experiments have proven hard to replicate. We make use of the R-Matrix Theory with Time Dependence (RMT) approach to model High-Harmonic Generation of Neon. We make use of separate RMT calculations to model different ionization pathways, and apply our recently developed density matrix approach to accurately model the spin-orbit correlations present between states. These correlations should manifest themselves in a time dependence of the HHG yields. Full study on HHG requires a detailed description of the atomic structure, making these calculations computationally expensive. We therefore require the use of High-Performance Computing Facilities such as ARCHER2 for this work.