Total Born cross sections for positronium and helium atom scattering

A thorough and systematic study has been performed for positronium (Ps) and helium (He) atom scattering using the first Born approximation. As a first step, the direct scattering has been studied. Here excitations of both the Ps atom and He atom, the ionization of the Ps atom with all the excitations of the He atom, the ionization of the He atom with all the excitations of the Ps atom and the ionizations of both the Ps and He atoms are taken into consideration. For the different states of the He atom, the wavefunctions suggested by Winter and Lin [Phys. Rev. A 12 (1975) 434] are used. For the ionization channels the continuum Coulomb wavefunctions have been taken for the ionized electrons.     

Assessment of adiabatic local-density approximation for nonlinear optical properties

Employing a near exact Hylleraas wavefunction we calculate various third-order nonlinear optical properties for the helium atom within the time-dependent Kohn-Sham theory. In our calculations we employ the adiabatic local-density approximation (ALDA) for the exchange and correlation kernels f_xc and g_xc, and compare the numbers obtained by us with the available accurate theoretical as well as experimental results. Our results demonstrate the accuracy of ALDA for the calculation of nonlinear optical properties of many electron systems. Received: 22 June 1998 / Accepted: 15 October 1998     

Dynamics of muonic atom cascade in hydrogen-helium mixtures

The deexcitation of excited muonic protium and deuterium in the mixture of hydrogen and helium isotopes is considered. Methods of experimental determination of the probability of direct atomic muon capture by hydrogen and muon transfer rates from excited muonic hydrogen to helium are proposed. Theoretical results for the population of the muonic atoms in the ground state, , are compared with the existing experimental data. Results obtained for mixtures are of interest for investigation of nuclear fusion in muonic molecules. Received: 6 August 1998 / Revised: 1st October 1998 / Accepted: 2 October 1998     

The two-photon transition of the fully-ionized muonic boron migrating in helium

In recent experiments performed at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) measurements were made of the yield of the two-photon transition of the fully-ionized muonic boron formed and quenched in a gaseous mixture of diborane B₂H₆ and helium. In the present work this yield is calculated for an idealized case of a very low diborane density when the main 2 s state decay modes competing with the two-photon transition are due to the electron transfer from helium to the μ-ion. As the rate of this transfer depends strongly on the relative velocity, a treatment is needed of the whole kinetics of processes occurring with the μ-ion in helium. Accordingly, within the optical model with a complex potential constructed before we calculate cross-sections of the elastic scattering and electron transfer. Then the time evolution of the μ-ion energy is considered and, finally, the yield is calculated. It proves that at helium pressures Torr this yield may be written in the form: ,where the factor C is greater than unity and increases rapidly with the initial energy E₀ which the μ-ion has after its formation in the diborane molecule. Thus measurement of the pressure dependence of allows E₀ to be estimated. The results obtained make it possible to suggest a similar parametrization of the PSI data. Received: 21 October 1997 / Revised: 16 January 1998 / Accepted: 2 March 1998     

Vibrational excitation by positron collisions with molecular gases: a study of O and NO targets

The scattering of slow positrons from and NO molecules is treated using exact static interactions and a model potential for correlation-polarisation forces. The quantum coupled equations for the elastic scattering are extended to vibrationally inelastic processes and the different excitation probabilities are evaluated. Comparison with existing experiments for the NO target indicates that the present calculations provide a realistic treatment of positron scattering below Ps formation and give computational estimates on the efficiency of such projectiles in producing vibrationally excited molecules in the ambient gas. Received: 23 April 1999 / Received in final form: 3 June 1999     

Pulsed polarization gradient cooling in an optical dipole trap with a Laguerre-Gaussian laser beam

We utilized a blue-detuned Laguerre-Gaussian (doughnut) laser beam to trap cold rubidium atoms by optical dipole force. ”Pulsed” polarization gradient cooling was applied to the trapped atoms to suppress the trap loss due to heating caused by random photon scattering of the trapping light. In this trap about 10⁸ atoms were initially captured and the trap lifetime was 1.5 s, which was consistent with losses due to background gas collisions. This trap can readily be applied to atom guiding, compression, and evaporative cooling. Received: 10 July 1997 / Received in final form: 5 January 1998 / Accepted: 16 January 1998     

Low frequency dielectric permittivity of quasi-one-dimensional conductor (TMTTF)2Br

Conductivity and permittivity of the organic transfer salt (TMTTF)₂Br have been measured at low frequencies (10²-10⁷ Hz) between room temperature down to 4 K. The real part of the permittivity, , is shown to grow below the temperature at which the conductivity is maximum due to charge localization of Mott-Hubbard type. reaches a maximum of 10⁵-10⁶ at 35 K-50 K depending on the samples. Decreasing temperature below , sharply decreases down to helium temperature through the antiferromagnetic phase transition at T _N = 15 K. We explain the magnitude, the temperature and frequency dependence of as resulting from short range charge density wave states in the temperature range where charge localization occurs. This interpretation is supported by recent X-ray scattering measurements. Received: 10 October 1997 / Revised: 28 February 1998 / Accepted: 3 March 1998     

Triply excited three-electron systems--semiclassical model

We calculate rovibronic intrashell spectra of the triply highly excited atomic hydrogen dianion, helium anion and lithium atom, within a simple semiclassical model. Zero-order electronic energy levels and half-lives are calculated for a number of principal quantum numbers and approximate thresholds for the appearance of vibronic modes are estimated. Since no quantum-mechanical and experimental data are available for the highly excited levels (N > 5), where the semiclassical models apply, no comparison with other results are possible at present. The problem of comparing semiclassical and quantum-mechanical calculations for moderately large quantum numbers, which seem attainable by the present day experimental technique, has been discussed. Received: 16 September 1998 / Received in final form: 16 March 1999     

The system of differential equations in the momentum space for the three-body problem: Continuous spectrum

A system of differential equations in the momentum space for describing three-body scattering is obtained. Preliminary calculations of the length of boson scattering on a bound bosonic pair are performed. The data obtained are in good agreement with the results of calculations of helium atom scattering on a helium dimer.     

慢电子与亚稳态He（2^3S）弹性散射中极化势研究

本采用带有截断函数的极化势,为确定其中的可调参数,给出了一个经验公式：r↑-/r0=0.618。通过慢电子与亚稳态He(2^3S)弹性散射总截面的计算,表明本确定的极化势更准确地描述了慢电子与亚稳态He弹性散射的实际过程。     

Elastic scattering of electrons by metastable hydrogen atoms in the presence of a resonant laser field

Within the framework of the rotating wave approximation the elastic scattering of electrons by metastable 2s state of hydrogen atoms is studied in the presence of a resonant laser field. The frequency of the circularly polarized laser field is chosen to match the 2s-3p transition frequency in the hydrogen atom. Variation of the cross section with laser intensity and with incident electron energy (50-150 eV) is investigated. Received: 18 July 1997 / Received in final form: 5 December 1997 / Accepted: 19 January 1998     

Electron-phonon scattering in an asymmetric double barrier resonant tunneling structure

We calculate the electron-phonon scattering rate for an asymmetric double barrier resonant tunneling structure based on dielectric continuum theory, including all phonon modes, and show that interface phonons contribute much more to the scattering rate than do bulk-like LO phonons for incident energies which are approximately within an order of magnitude of the Fermi energy. The maximum scattering rate occurs for incident electron energies near the quantum well resonance. Subband nonparabolicity has a significant influence on electron-phonon scattering in these structures. We show that the relaxation time is comparable to the dwell time of electrons in the quantum well for a typical resonant tunneling structure. Received: 23 December 1997 / Revised: 24 March 1998 / Accepted: 9 March 1998     

Glauber exchange amplitudes for electron-helium scattering

An exact closed form expression is obtained for the Glauber-Bonham-Ochkur exchange amplitudes for the electron helium scattering. The results thus obtained are compared with the results from Ochkur approximation and are used further for obtaining closed form expressions for the differential and total exchange cross-sections for the elastic scattering of electrons from the ground state of helium atom.     

Coulomb—Born—Oppenheimer approximation in Ps—H scattering

To improve the Coulomb-Born approximation (CBA) theory of ionization in positronium (Ps) and atom scattering, the effect of exchange is introduced. The nine-dimensional exchange amplitude for ionization of Ps in Ps—H scattering is reduced to a two-dimensional integral using the present Coulomb-Born-Oppenheimer approximation (CBOA). The methodology is extremely useful to evaluate ionization parameters for different target systems and for different types of ionization processes. It is then applied to evaluate the Ps-ionization cross-section and to estimate the effect of exchange on Psionization in Ps-H system. We establish the importance of exchange at lower energy region.     

Photo induced collisions with laser cooled He* atoms

This paper presents an experimental investigation of cold collisions between metastable helium atoms in an optical trap at 1 mK. Penning (PI) and associative (AI) ionization reactions are distinguished using a mass spectrometer and studied under influence of near resonant laser light. Dramatic enhancement, by more than a factor 15, of the ion rate is observed when the laser is tuned close to resonance. Experimental findings are well-described, on an absolute scale, by model predictions. Received: 9 February 1998 / Revised: 4 May 1998 / Accepted: 14 May 1998     

Electron scattering off simple atoms for large momentum transfer collisions

In a previous paper this author examined the Born expansion and isolated those parts of the expansion that contribute most significantly to the scattering amplitude for large momentum transfer collisions in inelastic collisions from the ground state of both hydrogen and helium. It turned out that certain terms where the scattering electron interacts once with the nucleus and once with the other electron dominate. The physical reason is that large momentum transfer collisions require the nucleus to take the bulk of the incident momentum but require an interaction with the one of the bound electrons to change the state of the atom. The arguments are quite general and this paper will extend this analysis by comparing the inelastic results obtained by this method for hydrogen and helium to a close coupling calculation with many intermediate states. Further, we will extend this analysis to the correction to the 1st Born result for elastic electron-hydrogen and electron-helium collisions and provide some results for scattering from the initial metastable states of hydrogen for large momentum transfer collisions. A comparison of the results of this analytic approach will be made to the numerical close coupling approach and experiments where available. The agreement is remarkable.     

Quantum wires and quantum dots for neutral atoms

By placing changeable nanofabricated structures (wires, dots, etc.) on an atom mirror one can design guiding and trapping potentials for atoms. These potentials are similar to the electrostatic potentials which trap and guide electrons in semiconductor quantum devices like quantum wires and quantum dots. This technique will allow the fabrication of nanoscale atom optical devices. Received: 28 October 1997 / Revised: 17 February 1998 / Accepted: 17 July 1998     

Semiclassical calculation of ionisation rate for Rydberg helium atoms in an electric field

The ionisation of Rydberg helium atoms in an electric field above the classical ionisation threshold has been examined using the semiclassical method, with particular emphasis on discussing the influence of the core scattering on the escape dynamics of electrons. The results show that the Rydberg helium atoms ionise by emitting a train of electron pulses. Unlike the case of the ionisation of Rydberg hydrogen atom in parallel electric and magnetic fields, where the pulses of the electron are caused by the external magnetic field, the pulse trains for Rydberg helium atoms are created through core scattering. Each peak in the ionisation rate corresponds to the contribution of one core-scattered combination trajectory. This fact further illustrates that the ionic core scattering leads to the chaotic property of the Rydberg helium atom in external fields. Our studies provide a simple explanation for the escape dynamics in the ionisation of nonhydrogenic atoms in external fields.     

Atomic Compton profiles within different exchange-only theories

The impulse Compton Profiles (CPs) J(q) and the expectation values for some inert gas atoms (He-Kr) are computed and compared within the Harbola-Sahni (HS), Hartree-Fock (HF) theories and a Self-Interaction-Corrected (SIC) density functional model. The Compton profiles for excited states of helium atom are also calculated. While the calculated CPs are found to generally agree, they differ slightly from one another for small values of the Compton parameter q and are in good agreement for large q values. The expectation values within the three theories are also found to be comparable. The HS formalism is seen to mimic HF reasonably well in the momentum space, establishing the logical consistency of the former. Received: 11 December 1998 / Received in final form: 20 April 1999