TY - JOUR
T1 - Quantum reflection of metastable hydrogen atoms by a conducting surface
AU - Friedrich, Harald
AU - Jurisch, Alexander
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Robin Côté for stimulating discussions and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for support (Az: Fr-591/12-1).
PY - 2005/1/31
Y1 - 2005/1/31
N2 - Due to the degeneracy of the n=2 states, the potential between a metastable 2S hydrogen atom and a conducting surface falls off as -1/z3 asymptotically, in contrast to the usual retarded van der Waals potentials, which fall off as -1/z4. This affects the quantum reflection amplitudes and causes the apparent space shifts, which express the time involved in the quantum reflection process, to diverge to large negative values at threshold.
AB - Due to the degeneracy of the n=2 states, the potential between a metastable 2S hydrogen atom and a conducting surface falls off as -1/z3 asymptotically, in contrast to the usual retarded van der Waals potentials, which fall off as -1/z4. This affects the quantum reflection amplitudes and causes the apparent space shifts, which express the time involved in the quantum reflection process, to diverge to large negative values at threshold.
KW - Metastable hydrogen
KW - Quantum reflection
KW - van der Waals potential
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=12344302098&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.physleta.2004.12.020
DO - 10.1016/j.physleta.2004.12.020
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:12344302098
SN - 0375-9601
VL - 335
SP - 43
EP - 49
JO - Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics
JF - Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics
IS - 1
ER -