Effects of size on the spectrum and stability of a confined on-center Hydrogen atom

Abstract

In this work we studied the problem of the stability of confined atoms when they are released from confinement. We analyzed the confined Hydrogen atom inside a cage modelled by a square-well potential, in particular the effects of size on the energy and the electronic structure of the confined atom, by considering different internal radii of the confining cage. Starting from the confined wave function, we clarified the effect on the probability transition between different confined states, and characterized the stability of the atom when released from in term of both, the ionization probability and the transition probability to a bound state of the free atom. The values of the different atomic properties calculated present oscillations when they are studied as a function of the size of the confining cage. This behaviour can be explained in terms of the shell structure of the atom.