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Journal of Physics B Atomic and Molecular Physics

Comment on 'Thermal collisions of Rydberg atoms with neutrals'

Michio Matsuzawa

Published Sep 14, 1981• 15 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is shown that the author's previously proposed model based on the interaction between a Rydberg electron and a neutral describes thermal quasi-elastic collisions of high-Rydberg atoms with the neutrals reasonably. A recently proposed mechanism based on the interaction between an atomic-ion core and the neutral has been found not to give any appreciable contribution to the collision processes mentioned above.

DOI
10.1088/0022-3700/14/17/004

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It is shown that the author's previously proposed model based on the interaction between a Rydberg electron and a neutral describes thermal quasi-elastic collisions of high-Rydberg atoms with the neutrals reasonably. A recently proposed mechanism based on the interaction between an atomic-ion core and the neutral has been found not to give any appreciable contribution to the collision processes mentioned above.
The validity of the impulse approximation (IA) in thermal Rydberg-neutral collisions rests critically on the semiclassical nature of the Coulomb binding potential. The authors have shown that the IA is valid in both thermal and high-Rydberg-neutral collisions by estimating the second-order terms of the IA. The authors have also indicated that the thermal quasielastic state-changing collisions of the high-Rydberg atoms with the neutrals can be viewed as proceeding via the Rydberg electron-neutral encounters. The core effect proposed by Flannery (1982) is shown to be unimportant for the case of thermal quasielastic Rydberg-neutral collisions.
The influence of the ionic core in Rydberg-atom--neutral collisions is evaluated within the framework of the impulse approach. It is shown that this contribution exhibits the same n behavior as that due to the Rydberg-electron--perturber interaction, though its magnitude is usually smaller. The general features of the core-perturber contribution are investigated. It is shown that there exists some situations for which effects ascribable to the core-perturber interaction are expected to be noticeable.
A new theoretical method outlined here for an important inelastic mechanism based on A-B + encounters in A-B(n) thermal collisions indicates a substantial contribution to l-changing transitions which therefore cannot be viewed as proceeding via (e-A) encounters alone. Recent descriptions of l-changing thermal collisions which are based on an (e-A) impulse treatment appear defective in that they disregard certain impulse validity criteria and yield results which greatly exceed the upper limit specified by the basic impulse expression, and do not recognise the above important inelastic mechanism associated with the non-inertiality of the core.
A general theoretical formulation of the Rydberg-atom-neutral-atom inelastic processes is presented in order to define precisely the physical content of the simple impulse picture and to develop a systematic correction procedure. A simple modification of the impulse amplitude is then introduced to incorporate the distortion effect caused by the presence of the core of Rydberg atom. A preliminary calculation provides a reasonable description of the inelastic scattering involving low principal quantum numbers as well.
Atoms in highly excited Rydberg states possess physical characteristics quite unlike those associated with atoms in the ground or low-lying excited states. In particular, they are physically very large and are only very weakly bound. In consequence, collisions can lead to a wide variety of reaction processes many of which are unique to Rydberg species and have very large collision cross sections. In collisions with neutral targets, Rydberg atoms behave not as an atom but rather as a pair of well-separated independent scatterers, namely the core ion and the excited Rydberg electron. In the present article we discuss many of the different reactions that can occur when Rydberg atoms collide with neutral targets, focusing principally on reactions that are dominated by (binary) Rydberg electron-target interactions and include collisions with molecules that attach free low-energy electrons and with polar targets. In certain situations, however, interactions involving the Rydberg core ion are important. This is illustrated using as an example the destruction of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules excited in a cold dense gas.