Dynamics of photoionization of hydrogenlike ions in Debye plasmas

Journal Article · Tue Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 2009 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.80.063404· OSTI ID:21352371

Qi, Y Y ^[1]; Wang, J G ^[2]; Janev, R K ^[3]

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1. School of Electrical Engineering, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing 314001 (China)
2. Laboratory of Computational Physics, Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, P.O. Box 8009-26, Beijing 100088 (China)
3. Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, P.O. Box 428, 1000 Skopje (Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of)

Photoionization processes for the ground state and n<=3 excited states of hydrogenlike ions embedded in a weakly coupled plasma are investigated in the entire energy range of a nonrelativistic regime. The plasma screening of the Coulomb interaction between charged particles is described by the Debye-Hueckel model. The energy levels and wave functions for both the bound and continuum states are calculated by solving the Schroedinger equation numerically by the symplectic integrator. The screening of Coulomb interactions reduces the number of bound electron states, decreases their binding energies, broadens the radial distribution of electron wave functions of these states, and changes significantly the phases and the amplitudes of continuum wave functions. These changes strongly affect the dipole matrix elements between the bound and continuum states and, hence, the photoionization cross sections. The most significant effects of the screened Coulomb interactions on the energy behavior of photoionization cross sections are manifested in its low-energy behavior (Wigner threshold law), the appearance of multiple shape and virtual-state resonances when the energy levels of upper bound states enter the continuum after certain critical strength of the screening, and in the (slight) reduction of the cross section at high photon energies. All these features of the photoionization cross section are related to the short-range character of the Debye-Hueckel potential. The effects of the potential screening on the Combet-Farnoux and Cooper minima in the photoionization cross section are also investigated. Comparison of calculated photoionization cross sections with the results of other authors, when available, is made.

• OSTI ID: 21352371
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 80; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOM COLLISIONS
BINDING ENERGY
BOSONS
BOUND STATE
CHARGED PARTICLES
COLLISIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CROSS SECTIONS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
DISTRIBUTION
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY
ENERGY LEVELS
EQUATIONS
EVALUATION
EXCITED STATES
FERMIONS
FUNCTIONS
GROUND STATES
IONIZATION
IONS
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATRIX ELEMENTS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PHOTOIONIZATION
PHOTON COLLISIONS
PHOTON-ATOM COLLISIONS
PHOTONS
PLASMA
SCHROEDINGER EQUATION
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
VIRTUAL STATES
WAVE EQUATIONS
WAVE FUNCTIONS