Paper detail

QPROP with faster calculation of photoelectron spectra

The calculation of accurate photoelectron spectra (PES) for strong-field laser-atom experiments is a demanding computational task, even in single-active-electron approximation. The QPROP code, published in 2006, has been extended in 2016 in order to provide the possibility to calculate PES using the so-called t-SURFF approach [L. Tao, A. Scrinzi, New J. Phys. 14, 013021 (2012)]. In t-SURFF, the flux through a surface while the laser is on is monitored. Calculating PES from this flux through a surface enclosing a relatively small computational grid is much more efficient than calculating it from the widely spread wavefunction at the end of the laser pulse on a much larger grid. However, the smaller the minimum photoelectron energy of interest is, the more post-propagation after the actual laser pulse is necessary. This drawback of t-SURFF has been overcome by Morales et al. [F. Morales, T. Bredtmann, S. Patchkovskii, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 49, 245001 (2016)] by noticing that the propagation of the wavefunction from the end of the laser pulse to infinity can be performed very efficiently in a single step. In this work, we introduce QPROP 3.0, in which this single-step post-propagation (dubbed i-SURFV) is added. Examples, illustrating the new feature, are discussed. A few other improvements, concerning mainly the parameter files, are also explained.