General equations are presented for determining the field-dependent variation of the wavefunctions, matrix elements and intensities of dipole transitions between Stark levels of a hydrogen atom in a field range where the fine-structure effects may be neglected. The Sturm-series resolution for the reduced Coulomb-Green function is used to derive analytical expressions for the first-order corrections in terms of parabolic quantum numbers of initial and final states. Simple forms of these expressions as functions of the upper-state quantum numbers are presented explicitly for the Lyman and Balmer series. The selective action of the dc electric field on the intensity of Stark components of hydrogen lines is revealed in numerical calculations for both and types of emitted radiation. This selectivity may cause, in particular, enhancement of the high-frequency and damping of the low-frequency Stark -lines of the Lyman series.
In this paper, we present an efficient alternative method for the evaluation of the three-photon transition matrix element in the dipole approximation from the ground state to bound states in atomic hydrogen. This method is a variation of the Dalgarno–Lewis method for the treatment of the second-order Stark effect in the hydrogen atom. In this approach, the infinite double sum over the complete set of states including the continuum states present in the third-order perturbation theory result is treated exactly. The closed analytical expression obtained for the matrix element, as a function of incident photon energy, clearly displays all singularities present in the original third-order perturbation theory result.
The wavefunctions, matrix elements, and probabilities of radiative transitions between Stark sub-levels of atomic multiplets are calculated as a function of the strength of a dc electric field. The general expressions for the wavefunction of a multiplet state in a field obtained by perturbation theory for close-lying levels with the use of completely reduced Green’s function allow one to determine the field dependence of both the dipole-allowed and dipole-forbidden radiation amplitudes. A decomposition of the second-order amplitude for the transition between fine-structure sublevels of two levels of equal parity into irreducible components is obtained. Numerical calculations of the probabilities of radiative transitions between triplet states of helium show the possibility of experimental observation of the emergence and vanishing of Stark lines of radiative transitions in the vicinity of anticrossing fields.
We extend previous work on the algebraic first-order moments of polarization profiles of hydrogen lines in the presence of external fields, to include the effect of configuration mixing induced by the applied fields. An algebraic formula for hydrogen line shifts due to the quadratic Stark effect is derived, under the assumption that the applied electric field is weak enough that line quenching induced by field ionization can be neglected. The derivation of such a formula is made possible by an aimed use of standard techniques of projection-operator algebra and of the fundamental implications of the spectral theorem. The results of this paper should help in decreasing the amount of numerical work needed in the calculation of line shifts of hydrogen lines induced by the presence of electric fields, as the preliminary numerical calculation of the Hamiltonian eigenvalues and eigenvectors is avoided, thus making calculations tractable for lines of higher hydrogen series than considered so far, e.g., in applications of pressure-broadening theory.
A theory of nonhydrogenic Stark spectra based on the hydrogen atom is specialized to quasidiscrete levels. Algebraic expressions for level positions ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{r}$, widths ${\ensuremath{\Gamma}}_{r}$, and oscillator strengths
frF are derived in terms of matrices
HF and
hF, which represent the hydrogenic density of states in a Stark field
F. Core effects appear through zero-field quantum defects ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{l}$ and dipole matrix elements
dl0. Normalized oscillator strengths
frF are defined which are independent of all
dl0 for $s\ensuremath{\rightarrow}p$ transitions. Isolated and interacting Stark manifolds with
m=0and1 are examined for systems with two nonnegligible ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{l}$. Extensive comparisons are made with experimental Li spectra and matrix-diagonalization calculations of Zimmerman, Littman, Kash, and Kleppner [Phys. Rev. A 20, 2251 (1979); ZLKK]. For small fields
F<3n51 level positions are given analytically with respect to H levels of fixed
n;
m=0 intensity distributions do not appear hydrogenic in Li since ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{0}\ensuremath{\sim}\frac{1}{2}$. At
F>3n51, degenerate parabolic eigenstates from different manifolds are coupled by the spherical core and avoid crossing. The upper levels disappear at
m=1 anticrossings in Li, as observed in ZLKK. For
m=0 the lower levels usually vanish instead. A full Stark map of calculated intensities
frF is presented for Li (
m=0) and agrees with experiment. Pseudocrossings occur at near triple degeneracies of hydrogen Stark states. Extensions to include
ls coupling are indicated. Experimental ionization rates in He are analyzed in a companion paper by van de Water, Mariani, and Koch [Phys. Rev. A 30, 2399 (1984)].
The Stark effect of the fine structure of hydrogenic atoms is discussed in the light of the quantum mechanics. Explicit formulas are given for the energy levels in either a weak or a strong electric field, including in each case both the relativity corrections and the Stark effect. (The conventional treatment neglects either one or the other.) The results are, except in form, similar to those recently given by Schlapp. In the new mechanics, in contradistinction to the old Bohr theory, there is a linear Stark effect even in weak fields, because of the identity of energy for the
ns and
np1 levels in the absence of external fields. This degeneracy is shown to account for the results of the recent experiments of Ornstein, Zernike, and Snoek, who found that the
2s level in
H is not metastable.The coefficients are found for the development of the "parabolic" eigenfunctions in terms of the "polar" ones, and a set of numerical values of these coefficients is tabulated.Methods are given for the calculation of the relative intensities in the Stark effect in terms of the already available theoretical fine structure intensities in the absence of fields.