Photoionization of hydrogen-like ions in dense quantum plasmas

Abstract

The photoionization of hydrogen-like ions in n≤3 bound states, embedded in cold, dense quantum plasmas, is investigated in detail. The electron energies and wave functions for the bound and continuum states are determined by numerically solving the scaled Schrödinger equation by the fourth-order symplectic integration scheme. The monotonic behavior of the photoionization cross section for a pure Coulomb potential is dramatically changed due to the plasma screening effects described by the cosine-Debye-Hückel potential. In the region of low photoelectron energies, the photoionization cross section, besides the usual Wigner-law threshold behavior, exhibits a rich structure of shape and virtual-state resonances when the plasma screening parameter takes values around the critical screening parameter for which a bound state enters the continuum. It is observed that a shape resonance is followed by a Cooper minimum in the photoionization cross section when the principal quantum number of continuum quasi-bound state is equal to the one of the initial bound states.