One atom v.s. atoms? (solved by schrodinger equation.)

[xylai]

The intense laser-atom physics becomes hot today. There is a famous interesting phenomenon: High-order harmonic generation (HHG).
Lots of works are on the single atom response in the strong field approximation. Some of them obtain the spectrum by solving the Schrödinger equation. Then they say their results agree well with the experimental ones. But in other groups, they also calculate the propagation of the generated harmonics in the medium, because the harmonics we obtain in the experiment come from lots of atoms interacting with intense laser field.
Now I have a question: the spectrum obtained by solving the Schrödinger equation really agrees well with today’s experiments?

 

[DrClaude]

Present-day calculations are very good, and only getting better as better models are developed (for example, by coupling the Schrödinger equation with the Maxwell equations) and as computers become more powerful.

For an overview of the current state of the field, one can check the recent special issue of the journal Molecular Physics (vol. 115, no. 15-16)
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tmph20/115/15-16?nav=tocList