We investigate the interaction of a xenon Rydberg atom with a metallic surface in an electric field. We also present a Stark map for xenon Rydberg atoms. The xenon Rydberg atom is modeled using a pseudopotential fitted to experimentally obtained quantum defects. We show that several xenon levels exhibit avoided crossings with the application of a DC electric field. Additional avoided crossings occur as the xenon Rydberg atom approaches a surface. These avoided crossings lead to mixing between levels of different principal quantum number n. Nonadiabatic transition through these avoided crossings can explain recent results involving ionization of state-selected xenon Rydberg atoms near a metal surface.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:RICE/oai:scholarship.rice.edu:1911/17612 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Oubre, Christopher David |
| Contributors | Nordlander, Peter J. A. |
| Source Sets | Rice University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | 49 p., application/pdf |
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