Dynamics of a Rydberg hydrogen atom near a metal surface in the electron-extraction scheme

Abstract We study the classical dynamics of a Rydberg hydrogen atom near a metal surface in the presence of a constant electric field in the electron-extraction situation [1] , e.g., when the field attracts the electron to the vacuum. From a dynamical point of view, this field configuration provides a dynamics richer than in the usual ion-extraction scheme, because, depending on the values of field and the atom–surface distance, the atom can be ionized only towards the metal surface, only to the vacuum or to the both sides. The evolution of the phase space structure as a function of the atom–surface distance is explored in the bound regime of the atom. In the high energy regime, the ionization mechanism is also investigated. We find that the classical results of this work are in good agreement with the results obtained in the wave-packet propagation study carried out by So et al. [1] .