Photoabsorption spectra in the perturbative regime for atoms in crossed electric and magnetic fields

Abstract

We calculate photoabsorption spectra of atoms in crossed electric and magnetic fields using a truncated basis of Coulomb eigenfunctions. The method yields spectra in the regime where inter-n-mixing is not dominant and allows for the treatment of non-hydrogenic atoms via a simple recourse to quantum defects. We compare results for hydrogen to those obtained in second order perturbation theory where the residual degeneracy left in first order perturbation theory is completely lifted and we show that only a very small basis size is needed to achieve convergence to within the accuracy of second order perturbation theory. In the case of lithium the coupling of an incomplete hydrogen-like manifold to states with non-negligible quantum defects substantially modifies the spectra obtained in comparison to the purely hydrogenic spectra. In the inter-n-mixing regime we also compare our convoluted results directly with an experimental spectrum for hydrogen and find good agreement below the saddle point.