Quantum phase-space analysis of electronic rescattering dynamics in intense few-cycle laser fields

We present a quantum phase-space analysis of the ionization and rescattering dynamics of a one-electron atom in an intense few-cycle laser field. Snapshots of the Wigner function W(x, p) will be analysed for both soft-core Coulomb and short-ranged potentials tuned to yield identical ground state energies and similar energies for the first lowest electronic states. The influence of the long-range Coulomb potential on the rescattering wavepacket in the continuum can be disentangled from that of the induced bound-state polarization. Short- and long-range atomic potentials entail differences in the rescattering dynamics, manifesting themselves in high-order harmonic generation spectra.