Ground State Of Helium Atom Research Articles

Effective Faraday interaction between light and nuclear spins of helium-3 in its ground state: a semiclassical study

Abstract We derive the semiclassical evolution equations for a system consisting of helium-3 atoms in the 2 3 S metastable state interacting with a light field far-detuned from the 2 3 S − 2 3 P transition, in the presence of metastability exchange collisions with ground state helium atoms and a static magnetic field. For two configurations, each corresponding to a particular choice of atom–light detuning in which the contribution of either the metastable level F = 1 / 2 or F = 3 / 2 is dominant, we derive a simple model of three coupled collective spins from which we can analytically extract an effective coupling constant between the collective nuclear spin and light. In these two configurations, we compare the predictions of our simplified model with the full model.

Time-Dependent Quantum Dynamics Study of the Interaction between Helium Atom and Synchrotron Radiation

For the first time, excitation and ionization of helium atom (He) induced by synchrotron radiation(SR) is simulated in the present work. It is found that electrons can tunnel through the ground state of helium atom and leave from the atomic region caused by subsequent SR field. Therefore, the ionization of He atom can happen. Additionally, some electrons can be captured by a higher electronic state, which leads to the tunneling excitation from the ground state to a specific excited state.

Plasma Confined Ground and Excited State Helium Atom: A Comparison Theorem Study Using Variational Monte Carlo and Lagrange Mesh Method

The energy eigenvalues of the ground state helium atom and lowest two excited states corresponding to the configurations 1s2s embedded in the plasma environment using Hulthén, Debye–Hückel and exponential cosine screened Coulomb model potentials are investigated within the variational Monte Carlo method, starting with the ultracompact trial wave functions in the form of generalized Hylleraas–Kinoshita functions and Guevara–Harris–Turbiner functions. The Lagrange mesh method calculations of energy are reported for the He atom in the ground and excited 1S and 3S states, which are in excellent agreement with the variational Monte Carlo results. Interesting relative ordering of eigenvalues are reported corresponding to the different screened Coulomb potentials in the He ground and excited electronic states, which are rationalized in terms of the comparison theorem of quantum mechanics.

Comparison among translational temperatures of , , and in inductively coupled plasmas

We compared the translational temperatures of , , and in low-pressure inductively coupled plasmas. We employed laser absorption spectroscopy for measuring the Doppler broadening widths of the transition lines, and they told us the translational temperatures of the three electronic excited states. From the comparison between the temperatures of and , we confirmed that the metastable 3 S 1 state can work as the probe for the temperature measurement of the ground state helium atoms. We observed higher temperatures for than in helium–argon mixture plasmas with total pressures less than 80 mTorr. The higher temperature is considered to be due to the selective heating of argon by the charge exchange collision with Ar+.

Resonant control of photoelectron directionality by interfering one- and two-photon pathways

Coherent control of interfering one- and two-photon processes has for decades been the subject of research to achieve the redirection of photocurrent. The present study develops two-pathway coherent control of ground state helium atom above-threshold photoionization for energies up to the $N=2$ threshold, based on a multichannel quantum defect and R-matrix calculation. Three parameters are controlled in our treatment: the optical interference phase $\Delta\Phi$, the reduced electric field strength $\chi=\mathcal{E}_{\omega}^2/{\mathcal{E}_{2\omega}}$, and the final state energy $\epsilon$. A small energy change near a resonance is shown to flip the emission direction of photoelectrons with high efficiency, through an example where $90\%$ of photoelectrons whose energy is near the $2p^2\ ^1S^e$ resonance flip their emission direction. However, the large fraction of photoelectrons ionized at the intermediate state energy, which are not influenced by the optical control, make this control scheme challenging to realize experimentally.

Stability of the helium atom embedded in classical nonideal plasmas

AbstractProperties of the ground state of the helium atom embedded in classical nonideal plasmas have been investigated within the framework of variational method. The background plasma is described by a pseudopotential which has been deduced from the sequential solution of Bogolyubov's hierarchy equations. An extensive trial wave function is employed in Rayleigh–Ritz variational principle to compute various quantities associated with the ground state of helium atom quite accurately. A detailed study is made on the changes in those quantities introduced by the varying nonideality of the plasma in a wide range. In particular, special emphasis is made to study the stability of the atom in the plasma by computing the critical values of screening parameter and nonideal parameter accurately. To the best of our knowledge, such a study on the stability of helium atom in classical nonideal plasmas is reported for the first time in the literature.

Direct observation of a Feshbach resonance by coincidence detection of ions and electrons in Penning ionization collisions

Observation of molecular dynamics with quantum state resolution is one of the major challenges in chemical physics. Complete characterization of collision dynamics leads to the microscopic understanding and unraveling of different quantum phenomena such as scattering resonances. Here we present an experimental approach for observing molecular dynamics involving neutral particles and ions that is capable of providing state-to-state mapping of the dynamics. We use Penning ionization reaction between argon and metastable helium to generate argon ion and ground state helium atom pairs at separation of several angstroms. The energy of an ejected electron carries the information about the initial electronic state of an ion. The coincidence detection of ionic products provides a state resolved description of the post-ionization ion-neutral dynamics. We demonstrate that correlation between the electron and ion energy spectra enables us to directly observe the spin-orbit excited Feshbach resonance state of HeAr+. We measure the lifetime of the quasi-bound HeAr+A2 state and discuss possible applications of our method.

Upper and lower bounds to atomic radial position moments

A procedure is developed to generate rigorous rough upper bounds to radial moments [r2n] with integer n ≥ − 2 for the ground and excited states of atoms and molecules. These rough upper bounds to [r2n] enable the calculation of accurate upper and lower bounds to the lesser moment [rn] through existing and new formulas that utilize a lower bound to the square overlap of a trial function and true wave function (in this case through an energy lower bound via the Eckart formula). Error bars to [r−1], [r], [r2], and [r4] are calculated for the ground state of the non-relativistic infinite nuclear mass helium atom to yield expectation values within 0.037%, 0.018%, 0.039%, and 0.24% respectively, of the true values. As a byproduct of this investigation, a new formula for the error bar to observables is derived which is a slight improvement upon similar error bars. Also Lieb’s limit on the number of electrons that an atom can bind is reproduced.

Theoretical investigation of the pressure broadening D1 and D2 lines of cesium atoms colliding with ground-state helium atoms

Full quantum mechanical calculations are performed to determine the broadening in the far wings of the cesium D1 and D2 line shapes arising from elastic collisions of Cs atom with inert helium atoms. The potential energy curves of the low-lying CsHe molecular states, as well as the related transition dipole moments, are carefully computed from ab initio methods based on state-averaged complete active space self-consistent field–multireference configuration interaction (SA-CASSCF–MRCI) calculations, involving the spin–orbit effect, and taking into account the Davidson and BSSE corrections. The absorption and emission reduced coefficients are determined in the temperature and wavelength ranges of 323–3000 K and 800–1000 nm, respectively. Both profiles of the absorption and the emission are dominated by the free–free transitions, and exhibit a satellite peak in the blue wing near the wavelength 825 nm, attributed to transitions. The results are in good agreement with previous experimental and theoretical works.

Three-Body Coulomb Problem

We present a general approach for the solution of the three-body problem for a general interaction, and apply it to the case of the Coulomb interaction. This approach is exact, simple and fast. It makes use of integral equations derived from the consideration of the scattering properties of the system. In particular this makes full use of the solution of the two-body problem, the interaction appearing only through the corresponding known T-matrix. In the case of the Coulomb potential we make use of a very convenient expression for the T-matrix obtained by Schwinger. As a check we apply this approach to the well-known problem of the Helium atom ground state and obtain a perfect numerical agreement with the known result for the ground state energy. The wave function is directly obtained from the corresponding solution. We expect our method to be in particular quite useful for the trion problem in semiconductors.

Differential and total cross sections for charge transfer and transfer-excitation in ion-helium collisions

Total cross sections for single charge transfer in collisions of multicharged bare ions with ground-state helium atoms at incident energy ranging from 40 to 5000 keV/amu have been calculated in the framework of a four-body model of final channel distorted-wave (FC-DW-4B) approximation. In this formalism, distortion in the final channel related to the Coulomb continuum of the target and the Coulomb interaction between the passive electron in the target with the projectile are included. In all cases, total single electron-capture cross sections have been calculated by summing over all contributions up to $n=3$ shells and subshells. It has been observed that the contribution of the capture cross sections into excited states have insignificant contributions for symmetric collisions. Comprehensive comparisons are made between the four body model of boundary corrected continuum intermediate-state approximations [Phys. Rev. A 83, 032706 (2011)] and the present FC-DW-4B model. The main purpose of the present study is to investigate the relative importance of dynamic electron correlation and the role of passive electron in the target at intermediate and high impact energies. In addition, projectile angular differential cross sections (DCS) for charge transfer and transfer-excitation in $p\text{-He}$ collisions are calculated at different impact energies. At low projectile energies, the present DCS data exhibits the typical steeply decreasing dependence on the projectile scattering angles, whereas at high impact energies, the double-scattering region centered on the Thomas angle is obtained. Detailed comparisons with the available experimental data and other theories are reported with the purpose of further assessing the relevance of the present model at different impact energies. Overall, the calculated cross sections show good agreement with the available experimental findings.

Single and double electron capture in p-He and α-He collisions

The differential and total cross sections for both single and double electron capture in collisions of and He2+ with ground state helium atom have been studied by means of the four-body model of target continuum distorted wave (TCDW-4B) approximation in the energy range from 30 to 1000 keV amu–1. In this model, distortion in the final channel related to the Coulomb continuum states of the active electron(s) in the field of residual target ion are included. The calculations are based on the independent electron model. The present computed results are compared with the available experimental and other theoretical results. Total cross sections are found to be in good agreement with the measurements. We have also analysed differential cross sections (DCS) for both single and double electron capture in the collision of proton and α-particles with helium atoms at different projectile energies. The present DCS data exhibits the typical steeply decreasing dependence on the projectile scattering angles, but neither oscillating structures characteristic of interference effects nor peaks reminiscent of the Thomas peak are observed at different projectile energies. The obtained results for the DCS into the ground state are compared with the experimental data and overall a satisfactory agreement has been found. Finally we have also studied the variation of double to single capture differential cross-section ratios with projectile scattering angles at different impact energies.

Interaction of Helium Rydberg State Molecules with Dense Helium.

The interaction potentials of the He2* excimer, in the a3Σu, b3Πg, c3Σg, and d3Σu electronic states with a ground state helium atom are presented. The symmetry of the interaction potentials closely follows the excimer Rydberg electron density with pronounced short-range minima appearing along the nodal planes of the Rydberg orbital. In such cases, a combination of the electrostatic short-range attraction combined with Pauli repulsion leads to the appearance of unusual long-range maxima in the potentials. Bosonic density functional calculations show that the 3d state excimer resides in a localized solvation bubble in dense helium at 4.5 K, with radii varying from 12.7 Å at 0.1 MPa to 10.8 Å at 2.4 MPa. The calculated 3d → 3b pressure-induced fluorescence band shifts are in good agreement with experimental results determined by application of corona discharge. The magnitude of the spectral shifts indicate that the observed He2* molecules emit from dense helium whereas the corresponding fluorescence signal from the discharge zone appears quenched. This implies that fluorescence spectroscopy involving this electronic transition can only be used to probe the state of the surrounding medium rather than the discharge zone itself.

Theory of noncontact friction for atom-surface interactions

The noncontact (van der Waals) friction is an interesting physical effect which has been the subject of controversial scientific discussion. The "direct" friction term due to the thermal fluctuations of the electromagnetic field leads to a friction force proportional to 1/Z^5 where Z is the atom-wall distance). The "backaction" friction term takes into account the feedback of thermal fluctuations of the atomic dipole moment onto the motion of the atom and scales as 1/Z^8. We investigate noncontact friction effects for the interactions of hydrogen, ground-state helium and metastable helium atoms with alpha-quartz (SiO_2), gold (Au) and calcium difluorite (CaF_2). We find that the backaction term dominates over the direct term induced by the thermal electromagnetic fluctuations inside the material, over wide distance ranges. The friction coefficients obtained for gold are smaller than those for SiO_2 and CaF_2 by several orders of magnitude.

Electron emission in collisions of fast highly charged bare ions with helium atoms

We have studied the electron emission from ground state helium atom in collision with fast bare heavy ions at intermediate and high incident energies. In the present study, we have applied the present three-body formalism of the three Coulomb wave (3C-3B) model and the previously adopted four-body formalism of the three Coulomb wave (3C-4B). To represent the active electron in the helium atom in the 3C-3B model, the initial bound state wavefunction is chosen to be hydrogenic with an effective nuclear charge. The wavefunction for the ejected electron in the exit channel has been approximated to be a Coulomb continuum wavefunction with same effective nuclear charge. Effectively the continuum-continuum correlation effect has been considered in the present investigation. Here we have calculated the energy and angular distribution of double differential cross sections (DDCS) at low and high energy electron emission from helium atom. The large forward-backward asymmetry is observed in the angular distribution which is explained in terms of the two-center effect (TCE). Our theoretical results are compared with available experimental results as well as other theoretical calculations based on the plain wave Born approximation (PWBA), continuum-distorted wave (CDW) approximation, continuum-distorted wave eikonal-initial state (CDW-EIS) approximation, and the corresponding values obtained from the 3C-4B model [S. Jana, R. Samanta, M. Purkait, Phys. Scr. 88, 055301 (2013)] respectively. It is observed that the four-body version of the present investigation produces results which are in better agreement with experimental observations for all cases.

Single ionization of helium atoms by energetic fully stripped carbon ions

A four-body distorted wave approximation is presented for theoretical investigations of the single ionization of ground-state helium atoms by fully stripped carbon ions at impact energies of 2 MeV/amu and 100 MeV/amu. The nine-dimensional integrals for the partial quantum-mechanical transition amplitudes of the specified reaction are reduced to some analytical expressions or one-dimensional integrals over real variables. Fully differential cross sections (FDCSs) are calculated and compared with their experimental values as well as the results obtained from other theories. Despite the simplicity and quickness of the proposed quadrature, the comparison shows that the obtained results are in reasonable agreement with the experiment and are compatible with those of other complicated theories.

Hylleraas–Configuration Interaction calculations on the 11S ground state of helium atom

Hylleraas–Configuration Interaction (Hy–CI) calculations on the ground 11S state of helium atom are presented using s-, p-, d-, and f-Slater orbitals of both real and complex form. Techniques of construction of adapted configurations, optimization of the orbital exponents, and structure of the wave function expansion are explored. A new method to evaluate the two-electron kinetic energy integrals occurring in the Hy–CI method has been tested in this work and compared with other methods. The non-relativistic Hy–CI energy values are ≈10 picohartree accurate, about 2.2 × 10−6 cm−1. The Hy–CI calculations are compared with Configuration Interaction (CI) and Hylleraas (Hy) calculations employing the same orbital basis set, same computer code, and same computer machines. The computational required times are reported.

Energetic Helium Ion Injection into Helium Recombining Plasma in Radio-Frequency Plasma Source

This technical note reports the first experimental investigation aiming for divertor plasma dynamics study using helium recombining plasma and energetic helium ion beam. A divertor plasma relevant experiment was performed using a linear plasma device, DT-ALPHA, and a multicusp ion source. The radial profiles of the line emission intensities from helium Rydberg atoms were investigated, and the reaction rate of volumetric recombination was confirmed to increase in the central region of the cylindrical plasma. Then an energetic helium ion beam was superimposed onto the helium recombining plasma. The optical emission intensities from the helium recombining plasma with and without energetic ions were obtained and compared. The temporal evolution of the optical emission indicated that charge-exchange momentum transfer between energetic helium ions and ground state helium atoms can affect population density even in recombining plasma where population density is dominated by recombining processes rather than ionizing processes.

Influence of electron correlations on double-capture process in proton–helium collisions

The first-order correct-boundary Coulomb–Born distorted-wave approximation is used to study the double-electron capture by protons from the ground-state helium atoms at intermediate and high impact energies. The differential double capture cross sections are obtained as a function of the projectile scattering angle and the total cross sections as a function of the impact energy. In the considered range of impact energy, our calculation shows that although the results are not so sensitive to the static inter-electronic correlations in the initial channel, the strong final-state correlations have a large effect on the magnitudes of the double capture cross sections. The calculated differential and integral cross sections are compared with their available experimental values. The comparison shows a good agreement between the present calculations and the measurements. The comparison of the integral cross sections shows that the present approach is compatible with other theories.

Focusing of a neutral helium beam with a photon-sieve structure

The manipulation of low-energy beams of neutral atoms and molecules via their de Broglie wavelength is a branch of atom optics often referred to as de Broglie matter wave optics. The application areas include fundamental quantum mechanics, atom interferometry, and the development of new microscopy instrumentation. The focusing of de Broglie matter waves with a Fresnel zone plate was used to demonstrate the first neutral helium microscopy imaging. The ultimate resolution of such a microscope is limited by the width of the outermost zone. Because a Fresnel zone plate for atoms cannot be fabricated on a substrate (the low-energy atom beams would not be able to penetrate the substrate material), this gives a fabrication determined limit for the first-order focus of around 30--50 nm. Therefore, it is important to search for alternative optical elements that enable higher resolution. Photon sieves consist of a large number of pinholes, arranged suitably relative to the Fresnel zones. The great advantages are that the width of the pinholes can be larger than the respective Fresnel zones and a free-standing pinhole is much easier to fabricate than a free-standing zone. Thus, with a photon-sieve structure applied for de Broglie matter wave manipulation, the fabrication limit for focusing is reduced to potentially around 3--5 nm. Here we present a realization of such an ``atom sieve,'' which we fabricated out of a silicon nitride (SiN) membrane, using electron-beam lithography and reactive ion etching. Our atom sieve is 178 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ in diameter and has 31 991 holes. The diameter of the holes varies from 1840 to 150 nm. Using a beam of neutral, ground-state helium atoms with an average wavelength of 0.055 nm, we demonstrate helium atom focusing down to a spot size of less than 4 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$. The focus size is limited by the intrinsic velocity spread of the helium beam.