The dynamical properties of a Rydberg hydrogen atom between two parallel metal surfaces**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10774093) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2009FZ006).

Abstract

This paper presents the dynamical properties of a Rydberg hydrogen atom between two metal surfaces using phase space analysis methods. The dynamical behaviour of the excited hydrogen atom depends sensitively on the atom—surface distance d. There exists a critical atom—surface distance dc = 1586 a.u. When the atom—surface distance d is larger than the critical distance dc, the image charge potential is less important than the Coulomb potential, the system is near-integrable and the electron motion is regular. As the distance d decreases, the system will tend to be non-integrable and unstable, and the electron might be captured by the metal surfaces.