Rydberg hydrogen atom near a metallic surface: Stark regime and ionization dynamics

Abstract

We investigate the classical dynamics of a hydrogen atom near a metallic surface in the presence of a uniform electric field. To describe the atom-surface interaction we use a simple electrostatic image model. Owing to the axial symmetry of the system, the z-component of the canonical angular momentum P is an integral and the electronic dynamics is modeled by a two degrees of freedom Hamiltonian in cylindrical coordinates. The structure and evolution of the phase space as a function of the electric field strength is explored extensively by means of numerical techniques of continuation of families of periodic orbits and Poincaré surfaces of section. We find that, due to the presence of the electric field, the atom is strongly polarized through two consecutive pitchfork bifurcations that strongly change the phase space structure. Finally, by means of the phase space transition state theory and the classical spectral theorem, the ionization dynamics of the atom is studied.

Interaction of Rydberg atoms with surfaces

“…The position of the saddle point in the frame of the ion core is given in [50] as z s (D) ≈ −0.69D and the height as E s (D) ≈ 1.74/D. Here, the perturbation of the Coulomb potential of the atom is increased as the distance between the atom and surface gets smaller as shown in Fig.…”

Driving the formation of the RbCs dimer by a laser pulse: A nonlinear-dynamics approach

“…Moreover, from these observations and using that one dimensional Hamiltonian, we have derived the approximate expression (27) for the formation probability which highlights the role of the relevant parameters of laser pulse and of the interaction potential which lead to the shaping of the formation probability.…”

“…The coefficient 1/2 in the probability expression (27) comes from the fact that for a given R, there are two possible initial values for P 0 R , one positive (and possibly leading to formation) and another one negative (not leading to formation) with the same energy E 0 . The blue curve on Fig.…”

“…18 is the formation probability obtained using the numerical computation of the roots of E(R) and using Eq. (27) Three parameters emerge as most influential in the formation probability. All of them are related to the long-range behavior of the dimer.…”

“…Some examples of such as studies can be found in Refs. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. Furthermore, classical studies in microscopic systems have revealed themselves as a power tool to understand quantum mechanical results in many cases (see e.g.…”