Numerical solution of the three-dimensional time-dependent Schrodinger equation and its application

We present an accurate and effective pseudospectral method for solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Schrodinger equation involving the Coulomb potential. In this method, the Hamiltonian is evaluated by exploiting the two representations of the wave function. One is a grid representation, in which the angular dependence of the wave function is expanded in a two-dimensional Gauss-Legendre-Fourier grid in the coordinate space of polar and azimuthal angles. The radial coordinate is discretized using a discrete variable representation constructed from the Coulomb wave function (CWDVR). The other is a spectral representation, in which the wave function is expanded in a set of square integrable functions chosen as the eigenfunctions of a zero-order Hamiltonian. The time of propagation of the wave function is calculated using the well-known second-order split-operator method implemented through the transform between the grid and spectral representations. Calculations on the photo-absorption strength of hydrogen atom are presented to demonstrate the accuracy of present method in low energy limit by the time-dependent wave-packet propagation method. As another example, the present method is applied to multiphoton ionization of H atom. For a wide range of field parameters, ionization rates calculated using the present method are in excellent agreement with those from other accurate numerical calculations. The new algorithm will be found more efficient than the close coupled wave packet method using CWDVR and/or methods based on evenly spaced grids.