Tailoring optical Schr\"odinger cat states via orientation-dependent high-harmonic generation in $\rm{H}_2^+$

Abstract:We theoretically demonstrate that the molecular orientation angle $\theta$ provides a structurally intrinsic, continuously tunable control parameter for engineering optical Schrödinger cat states via high-harmonic generation (HHG) in H$_2^+$. Coupling time-dependent Schrödinger equation simulations to the fully quantized HHG framework, we evaluate the Wigner functions of the post-selected harmonic-mode states under two complementary conditioning strategies. Conditioning on resonance-enhanced low-order harmonics exploits the complementary dipole selection rules of the $1\sigma_g\to1\sigma_u$ and $1\sigma_g\to1\pi_u$ transitions, driving a kitten-cat crossover whose direction is opposite in the two channels as $\theta$ is varied. Conditioning on plateau harmonics instead exploits two-center destructive interference, producing a reentrant cat$\to$kitten$\to$cat transition controlled by the order-dependent interference angle $\theta^*(q)$. In both cases the crossover is decoupled from the laser intensity, focal geometry, and molecular density, offering a degree of control with no counterpart in atomic targets.

Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph); Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph); Optics (physics.optics)

arXiv:2607.21248 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2607.21248v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.21248 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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