Confinement and high-order harmonic generation by a repulsive potential

The dynamics of an electron wave packet in the presence of laser radiation and of a one-dimensional repulsive soft-core potential is investigated. For different laser intensities and for different initial positions of the electron wave packet, these results are compared with those for an attractive potential. The repulsive potential is capable of confining the electron quite efficiently under appropriate conditions. In these conditions, the electron is shown to emit a high harmonic spectrum similar to that emitted by the more conventional attractive potential. It is thus argued that recombination into an atomic bound state as required by the three step model is not essential for the emission of high harmonics.