Assessment of Time-dependent Unrestricted Hartree-Fock Method for Electron Dynamics in Intense Laser Fields

Abstract

Time-dependent restricted and unrestricted Hartree-Fock (TD-RHF and TD-UHF) methods are comparatively assessed for the description of the electron dynamics in intense laser fields. These methods are applied to the one-dimensional H₂ molecule exposed to an intense laser field, and compared to the results from the time-dependent Schrödinger (TDSE) equation. Around the equilibrium interatomic distance, where the initial RHF and UHF wavefunctions coincide, TD-UHF keeps an initial closed-shell, thus underestimates large amplitude electron motions. At a longer interatomic distance, where the UHF wavefunction differs from the RHF one, TD-UHF better reprodeces the TDSE result than TD-RHF does.