Threshold effects and photoelectron spectra in model-system descriptions of photodetachment.

Abstract

Near-threshold single-photon photodetachment processes are considered for simple model systems representing negative ions exposed to monochromatic radiation. The model systems considered feature an initial discrete state, the photoelectron continuum, and in some cases an excited or autodetaching discrete state. Population trapping through the formation of a bound dressed state and the photoelectron spectra are examined. Two photoelectron spectra are defined : a primary spectrum which results from decay while the laser interaction is on and a secondary spectrum which results from the destabilization of the bound dressed state if the interaction is turned off again. Careful attention is given to the passage of the poles of the Green's operator through the low-energy boundary of a continuum, and it is concluded that such poles move nonmonotonically through the boundary of an s-wave continuum, but monotonically through the boundary of a p-wave or higher-l-wave continuum. Two example systems, one featuring a single discrete state and an s-wave continuum and one featuring two discrete states and a p-wave continuum, are considered in detail.