DC field microscopy of Rydberg Li atoms

Abstract

The DC field microscopy of Rydberg Li atoms has been studied on the basis of the semiclassical theory for the first time. In particular, we discuss the atomic core scattering effect in the ionization dynamics of the Rydberg Li atom. Unlike the case of the photoionization of a Rydberg H atom in an electric field, where the photoionization microscopy interference patterns are mainly caused by the Coulomb scattering and the electric field potential, for the photoionization of a Rydberg Li atom in an electric field, the influence of the atomic core scattering effect on the photoionization microscopy interference patterns plays an important role. In addition, the structure of the interference pattern, which contains the spatial component of the electronic wave function, evolves smoothly with the electron energy above the saddle point energy. The observed oscillatory patterns in the electron probability density distributions on the detector plane are interpreted within the framework of the semiclassical approximation, which can be considered as a manifestation of interference between various electron trajectories arriving at a given point from the atom to the detector plane. This study provides some reference values for future experimental research on photoionization microscopy of the non-hydrogen Rydberg atoms in the presence of external fields.