Dynamics of electron wave propagation in photoionization microscopy. II. Quantum-mechanical formulation

Abstract

Complementary to the semiclassical method developed in the preceding paper, here we develop a quantum-mechanical approach to characterize propagation of electron waves to large distances in photoionization microscopy of hydrogen atoms in uniform external electric fields. A formula for outgoing electron waves from the atomic source produced in photoionization has been derived. Spatial distributions of electron probability densities can be determined using the obtained formula. The electron waves that propagate to a large distance due to photoionization from the $n=2$ initial state of hydrogen atoms in electric fields has been calculated and the resulting probability densities are presented. Comparison with semiclassical results is made, and they are found to be in good agreement. A detailed analysis is given of strong quantum tunneling effects found in our calculations.