Many-electron atom confinement by a penetrable planar boundary

Abstract

The role of spatial limitation by an inert geometric planar boundary with finite potential barrier height on the electronic properties of many-electron atoms is presented based on models of quantum confinement. The variational treatment of the Thomas–Fermi–Dirac–Weizsäcker density functional scheme is applied throughout. As a sample application of the model, results are presented for the barrier-height dependence of the atom–wall interaction in terms of the ground-state energy shift of a Ne atom close to an aluminum surface and its relation with the corresponding repulsive continuous planar potential. Also, within this model, neutralization close to a surface is shown to be more prompt than Ne ionization.